A Different World
by Lythya
Summary: Katara, Mai, Toph and Azula are all married to the Fire Lord, and things are a mess - for everyone. Who will be the First Lady? Better than it sounds. Summary inside. Zutara, Maiko, Toku, Zucest and all the other pairings : Rated for depressing parts.
1. Part 1 Prologue

**~Part 1~**

Prologue

A Different World

Life can be difficult and a bliss at the same time. When good things happen, we tend to forget the bad things, but as soon as we only have the latter to think about, we sink to a level of utter despair. It is hard to find solutions in this state of hopelessness.

There are only few things that can bring you out of this condition.

So if you are first in it,

You will have a hard time,

Getting out.

-----

**Summary:** The Fire Lord is married to several women. Each of these must find their way in the strange life they're living, while strange things is happening in places far away. They all engages problems beyond imagination. It's a different world with different problems – for all of them.

Please review, and ideas are welcome.

Dawn


	2. Wife Mai pov

This will all be clear in the story, but I'd better just tell it right away.

In this story, the hundred years long war never happened. The character's age differences from one to another is still the same, and Katara's brother is still Sokka. Such things haven't changed. But the war didn't happen. Just a little note …

-

Chapter 1

Wife

Mai pov.

One, two, three, four. The big room was quiet, soft breathing of the five women the only noticeable sound. It was crystal clear to all of them, but they tried to ignore each other's presence.  
Five, six, seven, eight. The swishing sound of metal in the air cut through the silence like a sword through flesh. Someone stirred, and the sound of clothing rustling against skin sent a small vibration through the room. The wind blew, making the curtains move slightly. A cold breeze went through the room, easing the tension the tiniest bit; so little, it hardly mattered.  
Nine, ten, eleven, twelve. The swishing continued. No one asked for it to stop. Yet. She swung her knives a few more times, and then stopped before anyone would have to tell her to.  
The silence wasn't exactly awkward. It had been at first, and if a newcomer were to step in, this person would immediately feel the denseness between them. But it was so common now that they didn't even really notice much anymore.  
And then the silence was broken by the inevitable words. But Mai wished they'd been spoken just a few seconds later.  
"Do you think he's all right?" It was Katara who had spoken. Of course. Always the first one to give in to pressure.  
"Don't be so soft," Azula told her piercingly. She didn't even look at the waterbender.  
"Toph," Katara continued, turning to the blind woman. "Will he arrive soon?"  
"Jeez, take it easy, Katara. Of course he's all right," Toph retorted. Obviously, her mind was on the same places as Azula's, though probably not as ominous.  
"How can you all be so calm?" Katara cried out, letting herself fall into a chair, leaning hopelessly on the armrest. "What if he's hurt? What if he's been _killed_?" She deliberately moved her hand onto her bulging stomach.  
"Of course he isn't," Ty Lee assured. "Zuko is far too strong for that."  
One, two, three, four. Mai began to swing her knives again. No one would notice now.  
Katara got up again and began pacing back and forth over the floor. "But … What if –"  
"Oh, for crying out loud," Azula said, her voice heavy with disgust. "Would you either stop nagging us, or go nag someone else? Or stop _worrying_?" She glared at Katara, and though Katara tried to stare back, she was far too emotional to really fight.  
_Pregnant women_, Mai thought. She glared at Katara's bump.  
"Calm down, everyone. This is bad karma. Just sit down," Ty Lee told them all. She tried to keep up a good atmosphere most of the time – it was her job to keep them happy and entertained, to uplift them when they were down. When Zuko was gone, at least.  
Five, six, seven, eight. Mai's knives picked up speed.  
It was a well-established fact that the Fire Lord took several women as his wives. Just because someone married him first didn't make her the First Wife. He had to make the decision.

He hadn't yet.  
In the room there was five women; only one wasn't married to Fire Lord Zuko. That was Ty Lee. If she'd gone for it, she could have probably been one of them, but either she didn't want to be part of the silent competition, Azula asked her or she simply didn't want to marry Zuko. Maybe she had someone else on the side…  
Azula had been the first to marry Zuko. Of course, being his sister, she was never with him like the others, but she had a great political influence. They had married because of exactly this political influence.  
All the wives knew, of course, that Azula was manipulating Zuko to her advantage – he probably knew it himself but didn't know what to do about it – but no one ever argued. That was one of the unspoken rules. To maintain peace, the wives stayed out of each other's business.  
Mai had been the next to marry Zuko, and she'd been smug about having him to herself. She was hopeful back then; perhaps he wouldn't marry anyone else. But then, after a visit on the South Pole, he brought back his waterbender. Ugh. Water.  
Last was Toph Bei Fong. Her political standing had the most importance in their marriage. Mai didn't fear that she would become first wife. That girl didn't care much for the title, either. Sooner or later, the children she'd have would go to the Earth Kingdom and serve her own family.  
Azula was never going to be the first wife, of course, since she and Zuko would never get any healthy offspring. So that left only two options.  
And one of those options was already pregnant.  
It stung Mai to think of that. She'd been married to Zuko a year longer than Katara, but she hadn't conceived. Now Katara was carrying Zuko's first child.  
"Mai!" Katara snapped when one of her knives escaped her grasp and embedded itself into the chair that Katara was sitting on. The waterbender glared at her.  
"Sorry," Mai muttered darkly. This was one of the situations in which she was finding herself more and more frequently; those where she wished she was not married to Zuko. Of course she knew that was impossible.  
For starters, Zuko wanted her as his wife. The Fire Lord's wishes were not to be dismissed lightly.  
Second, her family would never have accepted her refusal.  
And third … She loved him. And love was damn irrational.  
"I think maybe they're coming now," Toph murmured.  
"Really?" Katara asked. Why did her eyes have to light up like that?  
"Yeah! He's here!" Toph answered, grinning. "So you can stop being a bundle of nerves. The sugar princess can relax; her prince has arrived."  
Usually Mai held warm feelings for Toph, but not right now.  
She pocketed her knives and stood. Ty Lee got to her feet, too. Mai was glad that, as least, Ty Lee still seemed to favor her.  
They waited silently for fifteen long minutes before the knock on the door. Katara's breathing was heavy.  
"The Fire Ladies are requested in the Fire Hall," a soldier told them, never meeting their eyes. That would be impolite. He held the door open for them.  
Azula went first, because she was Zuko's sister, then Katara, because she carried his baby, then Mai, and last Toph, because she was the youngest. Ty Lee walked a few feet behind her.  
Mai felt her heart fall to her stomach as she watched the back in front of her.

- Please tell me what you think :)

And omg I should not be writing this .


	3. Difficulties Katara pov

Chapter 2

Difficulties

Katara pov.

Katara rested her hand on her bulging stomach as they walked through the many  
hallways of the palace. Her heart was overflowing with happiness. Zuko was  
okay. Every time he left, she was worried that he might not return. Especially  
when there was a possibility of encounter with the rebellious Earth Kingdom  
citizens, those who refused to be under the Earth King's rule any longer. As  
the Fire Lord, it was Zuko's duty to discuss these problems with the  
world's other leaders.  
Usually he would take Azula with him: She was a great fighter, and she was  
very intimidating, so nobody would try to do him any harm – or succeed if  
they tried. But he'd chosen not to take her this time. Why, he hadn't told  
them.  
She sighed. At least he was home now.  
Azula ceased walking, and Katara followed her lead. Behind her the two others  
stopped as well. They were standing before the great doors that led into the  
Fire Hall. The guards were waiting for them to give them an order, and Azula  
finally spoke: "Tell my brother that his wives have arrived!" As always, a  
command from Azula sounded much like a threat – it sounded as if the  
littlest mistake would result in whiplashes and burning. Katara thought  
seriously that they probably would.  
Not much time passed before they were asked to enter, and Azula walked first,  
as to be expected.  
"The Fire Ladies," one of the guards announced as they walked in.  
Katara fought with herself not to stretch her neck to get a good look at  
Zuko; right now, she could only see the burning flames in front of the throne.  
But she had to behave properly – she wouldn't want to embarrass Zuko. Mai  
never did.  
Then she realized that he wasn't sitting on the throne, and she moved her  
eyes to the floor in front of it. Two people were standing there, both male.  
She recognized Zuko immediately. Even in the confusing light, it was easy to  
make out his profile.  
The other one she had never seen before. He was bald and had a friendly  
looking face. He was almost as tall as Zuko, and he wore clothes that  
indicated him to be an airbender. So did the arrows on his hands and on his  
head, which meant he had to be a master.  
"Avatar Aang," Zuko said, and surprise shot through Katara. So this was  
the Avatar. "These are my wives. You've already met Azula. After her is  
Katara, from the Southern Water Tribe." As she was mentioned, Katara  
curtsied swiftly, keeping her eyes at the floor.  
"Oh, right," the Avatar said in a happy voice. "Your brother has  
mentioned you a few times to me."  
Katara nodded. Her brother had worked outside the Southern Water Tribe for a  
long time, and she'd known he worked with the Avatar.  
"Then there's Mai," Zuko continued, as if nothing had interrupted,  
"from the Fire Nation. And last, Toph Bei Fong."  
Avatar Aang smiled. "I've already met your family," he told Toph in a  
friendly and welcoming tone. There was harmony in his voice. Ease. It was  
smooth like honey.  
"I take it they're well?" Toph asked. Even though she was the youngest,  
she had better manners than Katara. The only question was whether she would  
use them. Toph could be very rebellious. One of her charms, as Zuko put it.  
"I saw them just two months ago, at the Earth King's court. They're  
happy, but they miss you," the Avatar answered.  
"I'm glad to hear that," Toph responded, two meanings to her words.  
Katara smiled.  
"Dinner will be served soon," Zuko said, his voice amused, as if he liked  
the situation. "The Avatar and I have some politics to discuss."  
He didn't need to say any more.  
His wives curtsied before they left the Fire Hall and went for the hallway  
with their rooms.  
Ty Lee, who waited outside the big doors, followed obediently. Katara liked  
the cheery girl, and she always felt somewhat jealous that she so obviously  
preferred Mai before anyone else – even Azula, though she tried to disguise  
that. Azula, for the most part, only tolerated things that worked to her  
benefit.  
"Come on, girls; the Avatar is here, so we have to look proper. Find your  
very best dresses!" Azula ordered as the guards opened the doors to her  
room.  
Katara didn't respond. She walked into her own room, longing for solitude.  
She knew there would be about half an hour till they had to be ready, and she  
didn't want to delay anybody else. Every little thing counted.  
But she felt like she had to lie down.  
Her room had blue carpets with the sign of the Water Tribe, both on the walls  
and the floor. On her terrace she had a little fountain. It didn't make her  
feel at home, but a little more at ease.  
She sighed deeply as she found her way to the bedroom, where she lay down.  
She should probably call for a dresser to help her find the best clothes, but  
she didn't care much for it at the moment.  
She rested her hand on her belly and tried to calm herself, but she  
couldn't. It only made her more nervous. What would be this child's  
future? Would Zuko chose her to be his First Wife, thus making their child his  
successor?  
No doubt it was a great advantage for her that she already carried a child,  
and that none of the others did, but she wasn't sure if that would be  
enough. Zuko wasn't always that easy to figure out, and she knew that he  
loved Mai. He could easily choose her instead. Too easily.  
It pained in her heart to think of it, but even if she tried not to, the  
images somehow kept sneaking into her mind. What if Mai ended up being the one  
who had four guards outside her room, instead of the other wives' two? What  
if the most luxurious bedchambers went to Mai, and she wouldn't even spend  
time in them because she was sharing Zuko's bed? Would Katara be able to  
bear that?  
In so many ways she could see the reasons for him to choose Mai over her –  
like the fact that she was from the Fire Nation. They didn't have many  
previous cases to look to about how this baby would turn out. No one person  
could hold more than one element inside of them – only the Avatar held that  
power. So the child would get either one of the elements – and probably not  
very strongly – or none at all, whereas Mai's children would definitely be  
firebenders. There was no questioning that. Zuko's family had such strong  
Firebending that it had been ages since one in the direct bloodline had been  
born without the skills. Furthermore, blood from outside of the family (the  
Firebending strength had been kept /in the family/) meant there wasn't a  
risk of consanguinity blocking the ability.  
Katara wrinkled her nose and furrowed together her eyebrows.  
To top it off, she wasn't just another element, like Toph was. She was the  
/opposite/ of fire. Maybe that was what had attracted him in the beginning,  
but it could be a serious complication now.  
She finally forced herself to snap out of the melancholy state and walk to  
her door, where she called for her dresser. She felt impatience, not sympathy  
– which was unlike her – as her dresser hurried to find the best-suited  
clothes and accessories for the occasion.  
Katara let the woman dress her as she stared, unseeing, into the air in front  
of her. The dress chosen, a light, clear sky blue, was beautiful, but she  
suddenly felt wrong about it, and she ordered her dresser to find red clothes  
instead. Firey.  
She dressed as if she was a woman from the Fire Nation. Only her dark skin  
and blue eyes gave her away.  
Her dresser bowed to her. "You look beautiful, my Fire Lady."  
The title irritated Katara. She felt a small fire burning inside her, one the  
dresser had just added fuel to, burning for the real title: /First/ Fire  
Lady.  
She still pulled herself together enough to dismiss the servant and wait a  
few minutes before walking out her door. For once, she was happy to see Azula  
was already there. That meant she wasn't going to be alone with Mai.


	4. Perfect Azula pov

Chapter 3

Perfect

Azula pov.

Azula considered herself pretty much perfect in every sense of the word. It  
wasn't like other people – she didn't just imagine she was perfect. She  
truly succeeded in what she put her mind on. From she was very young, her  
father had told her that she was a Firebending prodigy. Even once she'd  
heard him regret that she was not his first-born. This made her feel even more  
special. And it wasn't like people told her otherwise. Ty Lee told her every  
day, servants did too, and there was envy in people's eyes whenever they saw  
her.  
She had gone far in life, and she knew she could get farther still. The  
option of being the First Wife was, regrettably, out of reach, but there were  
plenty of other ways. Zuko let them stand open for her to embrace. In that  
sense, he was a good brother.  
She smiled the little, solemn smile, that told the world that she knew  
something it didn't.  
She was resting herself easily against the wall, waiting for Zuko's other wives  
to step out of their rooms. She knew they didn't realize they were expected  
to hurry up when the Avatar was a guest, but she was still annoyed. A real  
Fire Lady followed etiquette – or broke it with manner.  
She smiled to herself, making no show of hiding her amusement, as Katara  
stepped out, dressed as a woman descendant from the Fire Nation. Her eyes  
flickered to Azula swiftly and then away again. There was utter silence in the  
hall, yet Azula read some sort of relief in Katara's appearance, even if she  
couldn't see the water bender's face.  
She smiled another one of her denoting smiles and pushed herself from the  
wall. "You look somewhat sick, Katara. Is something wrong?"  
As she had predicted, Katara flushed brightly at the words. Azula smiled  
superiorly back at the blue eyes, her expression indicating that she thought  
herself higher than Katara. Which, of course, she was. Katara had been lucky  
that Zuko had even _noticed_ a peasant like her. In her opinion, Zuko had been  
weak when he laid eyes on Katara, drawn to the unexpected, the new, the  
exciting. He should have just kept it simple, only herself and Mai.  
"I guess it's the pregnancy," Katara murmured.  
"This early?" Azula asked. She didn't hide her disbelief.  
The waterbender's hands came up in fists, and she bit down on her bottom  
lip. "I'm fine," she spat out.  
Azula found it amusing that Katara was so easy to manipulate. She always  
found it entertaining when she could manipulate people to do things the way  
she wanted them to, even when there was no actual reason for her to do so.  
When Katara was first introduced to the palace as Zuko's fiancée, she was  
taught all kinds of things about the life in the Fire Nation and as its lady.  
It had been obvious that she had to struggle to try and fit in. Azula found it  
hilarious to watch.  
She didn't care much for Katara, and if she could have chosen for Zuko to  
have married her or not, she would choose the last option. Katara was –  
simply put – a complication. A weakness of Zuko's. Another wife of the  
kind that the Fire Lord chose because he loved, not because of politics like  
Toph and herself.  
Azula was well aware that Katara and Mai were the candidates for the title as  
First Wife. Toph wasn't really up for it, and Zuko didn't love her the  
same way as the other two, that much was clear.  
To her, it was so clear it was ridiculous who should be the First Wife. Mai,  
of course. She was from the Fire Nation, and she wasn't a _waterbender._ It  
would probably also please the people a whole lot more than if Zuko chose  
Katara.  
But, as Azula had observed, love did the strangest things to people.  
Her thoughts were interrupted when Toph stepped out of her room, dressed in a  
green silk dress. Her hair was straightened back into a large knot, and to  
perfect the look, little flickers of pearls glimmered in it.  
"Hi," she greeted as she walked to Katara's side. "Mai will be here  
in a few seconds."  
Azula watched as Katara stiffened, and she smiled dryly. There was one plus  
about Katara being a Fire Lady; she was so pathetic it was funny.  
"I'm ready," Mai's voice announced, and Azula turned her head to  
watch as she walked out, followed by Ty Lee, smiling and adorable as always.  
Azula walked a few steps down the hall with a slow tempo, waiting for the  
others to follow up.  
"Let's go," she said, and then added, without looking backwards, "at  
a pace that doesn't nauseate Katara and her little waterbender, of  
course."  
She was pleased to hear Katara hiss behind her.

-

I don't know if I got Azula's wickedness right – she really is hard to write.

So, well, third chapter. It's going a bit slow with the time here in the beginning, but I just want to introduce the story scenario first before the whole plot thing begins.

Please review :) Fire flakes to those who do.


	5. Dinner Toph pov

Chapter 4

Dinner

Toph pov.

Even though she was blind, she was still able to see. Her blindness had  
forced her to develop a different kind of sense; Earthbending that let her  
"see" with the vibrations of the earth. It had its flaws, but she was  
fully satisfied with what she had.  
That didn't only count for her sight.  
Her life was good. She was married to the Fire Lord, making her family more  
powerful than ever before. Her future looked bright, and she could do pretty  
much what she wanted without expecting it to come back to haunt her. That was  
much more than most seventeen-year-old girls could hope for.  
Because she was so satisfied with her situation, she had a hard time  
understanding the three other wives. Katara and Mai both wanted badly to be  
Zuko's First Wife, and Azula, in herself, it was part of who she was, always  
wanted more.  
Toph liked not being considered seriously for the title. She knew that Zuko  
didn't love her the same way as the two others, just as she didn't love  
him the way they loved him. They were married for political reasons, decided  
by their parents. Of course Zuko could have said no, and maybe she could have,  
too, but they didn't. Toph wasn't exactly sure why. She could have gotten  
pretty much any other man she wanted, but somehow she was happy she hadn't  
said no.  
Of course she loved Zuko now, but she hadn't back then, and she still  
didn't love him in that way. He was a good man, kind, honest. That was much  
more than most men, as her mother had once told her. Zuko loved her much like  
someone would love a younger sister. He felt just as protective about her, and  
she respected and looked up to him.  
They hadn't been _together_ more than one time, either, which was fine with  
Toph, though she knew children were expected from her. She just couldn't  
think much of it right now. She was still young. There was plenty of time.  
As they walked through the palace to the garden in which they would dine, she  
felt the vibrations of the other three's hearts. Azula's was steady, as  
always. Katara's was frantic and out of rhythm. Mai's was frantic like  
Katara's, but more controlled. That was very like her.  
Ty Lee followed behind Toph. That girl spent most of her time with them, but  
usually stayed out of formal dinners. Toph wondered if she was expecting  
something extraordinary from this evening, or if it was just the Avatar. Maybe  
the Avatar was, to her, extraordinary enough, but she doubted it.  
They finally reached the garden, and they were showed to their seats. As the  
evening went, things got more comfortable. Toph noted that the Avatar had a  
hilarious streak – to her, at least.  
Aang was obviously a person who considered every life precious, very much in  
harmony. He was also a bit shy, vulnerable, yet energetic.  
He and Katara talked freely; in the beginning their topic was mostly about  
Sokka, Katara's brother who worked with the Avatar. But their conversation  
soon wandered to other subjects.  
Azula was discussing something with Zuko and occasionally asked the Avatar  
questions. She was, as always, bitingly precise and pretty much all snaky.  
Mai was quiet, which wasn't unusual. Toph noticed that, in general, she  
preferred to talk when alone with Zuko, Ty Lee or Azula. It interested her how  
Mai had befriended Azula long before most others, despite her terrifying  
nature.  
Even though the dinner went nicely and without complications – as it should  
– it was still easy for Toph to sense the tension between Mai and Katara.  
They were both so touchy.  
After dinner they took a walk in the garden. Toph didn't enjoy it much;  
gardens were for women to _look_ at all the flowers and trees, so she  
couldn't exactly appreciate it greatly.  
When it was time to separate, Zuko asked Katara to stay with him. This was  
understandable; she was carrying his first child, so it made sense for him to  
want to spend some time with her.  
Yet Toph heard that sad thud of Mai's heart as it leapt to her stomach.  
"Come on," she called to her, "let's go do something fun!"  
Mai seemed to hesitate before she walked toward her.  
"What is it?" Mai asked. Her voice weren't deadpan anymore; now she was  
just glum.  
"We'll go to the training yard. I'll make you some dummies that you can  
shoot down. You'd like that."  
Mai chuckled a little, then composed herself. "I guess I would," she  
answered.  
"Come on, then! We need to find Ty Lee. I'm sure she can't _wait_ to  
hear all the details of our oh-so-interesting dinner."  
"I'm sure she can't," Mai murmured. She walked with heavier footsteps, obviously  
thinking of the moment at the end.  
_Jeez_, the earthbender thought_. There's just no winning with this woman!_

-

Yea, so, please tell me if you like it?

Just so you all know, I'm still not sure what this is going to end up with, soooooooo … Yea …

I don't know if I'll make the next chapter Mai pov. Or Katara pov. We should see Zuko, too, so I think maybe Katara.

What do you think?

Please review! Fire flakes if you do! And that rimed … Nice timed. Yea, okay, I'll cut it out xD


	6. Assumptions Katara pov

Chapter 5

Assumptions

Katara pov.

They went for a walk in the garden after parting from the Avatar. It was nice  
walking side by side with him again. She'd missed that, missed being close  
to him, looking at his face. On the right side, his face was ordinary, but a  
large scar covered the left side. It was from when he was thirteen. She'd  
been told rebels had invaded the palace, and Zuko, being too brave for his  
mere thirteen years, threw himself right into the fight. It marked him for  
life.  
Later he discovered that there were very talented healers that, with the  
right water, could remove the scar. Katara was one of them. She had been  
thrilled to find out, but he had refused, saying that if he lost the aftermath  
of the lesson, he would lose the lesson itself.  
"Did you meet any trouble in the Earth Kingdom?" Katara asked once more.  
She'd asked it about once a minute for the past quarter-hour, in different  
words.  
He cocked his head towards her, looking wary. "Katara, are you all  
right?" he asked in that throaty voice of his.  
"I'm fine," she responded immediately. "Why do you ask?" Her mind  
was blank as to why he would think _she_ was hurt when _he _had been in a  
country that was filled with danger.  
"Well, for one you've asked me the same question a hundred times, and for  
another… you just seem sad."  
She shrugged and looked away. She hoped that he would notice the way she  
moved, the sadness inside of each one of her limps. The way it floated in her  
eyes.  
But he didn't do anything. He just kept walking, looked away, tried to  
ignore what was probably every obvious.  
She felt anger come to life in her chest. Anger towards him. Wasn't he  
supposed to do something about her sadness?  
"How's the baby doing?" he asked. Probably absentmindedly, he placed  
his hand on her little belly.  
"It's hard to say. There haven't been any unusual side effects that  
shouldn't be there, though," she answered with narrowed eyes.  
He nodded. "Good. But you still should probably rest during your  
pregnancy."  
A flame of hope suddenly filled her. Did he want her to take especially good  
care of this child because it was going to be his successor?  
She was suddenly smiling, her cheeks flushed.  
"You're right," she said, touching the necklace that hung around her  
neck. Following water tribe tradition, Zuko had carved it and given it to her.  
To represent the union, the necklace was engraved with the Fire Nation's  
national sign.  
Something burned across her cheek, and she quickly turned her head towards  
him. He'd run his fingers over her face.  
"You seem a bit out of it tonight," he said, removing his hand, reading  
her expression incorrectly. "Do you want to stay in your own room or share  
mine tonight?"  
She smiled and stepped closer to him. "I'd like to share yours," she  
answered.

-

A little Zutara chapter here. Whatcha think?


	7. Restless Mai pov

I'm sorry for not putting anything up for so long, but now I'm back! Sort of. I just told one of my friends some of the things that's going to happen in this story, and I suddenly felt an urge to write it!

Btw, feel free to request couples! Even crack couples! I'm not sure I can do Yaoi, but I can probably do Yuri, as long as it's subtle.

So whatever you want! You can even request Zutara, Maiko, Toku and Zucest if you want MORE of it! Besides, pretty much every couple is going to be in this story.

That was it. Please review ^^

-

Chapter 6

Restless

Mai pov.

She'd always wanted to belong to him, but she hadn't known that she would be jealous of the other things that belonged to him. She was even jealous of Azula, who mostly got to travel with him when he left. This trip had been an occasion. She rarely stayed behind.

But with Azula she'd been capable of bearing with it. Azula was his sister, and he only looked at her that way. With Toph, she was jealous, but it was bearable. Easily. Toph and Zuko were married out of convenience, and nothing was threatening Mai's position as First Wife.

But Katara was different. That was because Mai knew that Zuko loved her – loved her as a lover.

And now that he was finally back, Katara got to be with him. She was carrying his baby, it was to be expected.

Her hands grasped in fists. That little peasant … How could someone with such a questionable upcoming become a Fire Lady, furthermore, a candidate to the position as First Wife? It was indisputable.

She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air that roamed in the depth of the slumbering volcano at night time. This had always been her home. As little, she'd been carried around in a palanquin in those streets, to and from the palace where she'd play with Azula and Ty Lee, or to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. Even back then her mom had planted the thought of Fire Lady in her thoughts, and from the moment she saw Zuko, the idea didn't seem so inappropriate to her.

She opened her eyes and gazed up at the moon. It was almost full. Katara's strongest part of the month would soon arrive. Did she somehow control Zuko with water bending, maybe?

Mai shook that thought off her. Katara wasn't like that. She'd hate even the thought of doing anything so cruel to another human being.

"Then why?" she whispered and rested herself against the banister as her hands shook. "Why does he love her?" She took deep breathes to steady herself. She'd spent years shaping and perfecting the art of stealth and deadpan's. A simple water peasant was _not_ going to ruin years of work. And she was _not_ going to take Zuko away from her!

But right now, Zuko was with Katara, not her.

She put her hand against her stomach. Why wasn't she pregnant? Was something wrong with her? She should have been pregnant even before Katara came! Then he probably wouldn't even have met her or laid eyes on her! Then he wouldn't have married her! Then Mai would have been certain to be First Lady, and everything would be as it should.

She turned around and walked back inside. How much she wanted the big room down the hall. It was unbearable. Somehow, these walls in her room seemed hostile.

In her room she let herself fall down upon the bed, but she couldn't fall asleep. She kept turning and writhing, thinking only of Zuko and Katara together. Zuko with his hand on Katara's tummy, looking at her with so much love that it ripped at her heart. It was as though she could feel someone crushing it every time they were together, yet someone also put it back together tightly whenever _she_ was the one with Zuko. Did Katara feel this way, too? Did Mai hope that she did? No, Mai did not want another being to be in this much pain. It was agonizing and unbearable.

Plus, Katara couldn't possibly be as afraid as Mai, since she was pregnant. That did all the difference. Mai would have much better chance if that water peasant lost her child.

No, she wouldn't think that. A mother losing her child would be worse than anything, and it would be unfair to the unborn child. Mai hated herself for thinking it, but she forgave herself because she was not serious in her wishes.

She could only hope, and wish for, that Zuko would chose her and not Katara. Not the woman he loved so much. Not the woman who was special and mystical. Not the woman who was a powerful bender and healer. Not the woman who was carrying his first child.

It was hopeless.


	8. Topics Zuko pov

Wow, I've got a beta now, so the chapters will be a LOT better now! Not only because my beta is a genius, but also because now I take it just a tiny bit more serious xD So thousands of thanks to 1angelette for editing!

-

Chapter 7

Topics

Zuko pov.

Her curly hair caressed the pillow, flowing over the fabric like a fountain.  
Her breathing was quiet and steady, and he felt her warm breath on his skin as  
her chest rose and lowered. He put his hand on her belly and hoped for a kick,  
even though he knew it was too early for that. But he could still hope.

He smiled. His child. A little kid, running around in the garden, calling him  
"Daddy", showing his parents some adorably ill-made craft from school. He  
had a feeling he was going to spoil this child. Like he spoiled its mother.  
Katara deserved gifts; she should have the best. He couldn't give her the  
home she belonged to, but he could try to give her a new home here, in the  
Fire Nation.

His thumb rubbed against her skin in circles, and he watched her half-open  
mouth and closed eyes with fascination. He could never stop thanking the  
spirits and the great Agni for letting him meet her. He loved her more than  
anything in the world!

Well, except one thing.

One person.

He turned his head toward the ceiling as his mind was clouded with pictures  
of his second wife, Mai. Her black hair when it was loose, her eyes when they  
smoldered, her soft skin when she cuddled against his chest, and the warmth  
from her mouth as she kissed him.

And her silence. It was a strange, calming silence, which he had never met  
before her. With other people, silence was awkward, but the two of them could  
spend hours together without saying a word. In fact, he often found himself  
more flustered when he was talking with her than when he wasn't, though any  
time with Mai made him happy. It was as if they connected on a whole different  
level than other people.

He turned away from Katara and closed his eyes. He wanted to forget right  
now. Forget everything and everyone. Not think about those two women he loved  
so much anymore.  
His body seemed to agree with his thoughts, and he soon fell into an  
almost-restful sleep.

-

When he awoke, he was lying the wrong way around and saw Katara standing on  
the balcony. He sat up in the bed and touched his head. His hair was a mess  
– as always – and fell down in front of his eyes. He yawned and got out of  
the silk covers to dress in a robe.

He walked silently over behind his third wife and put his arms around her  
from behind. "You know, you looked really beautiful yesterday at dinner,"  
he told her. "Red suits you."

She put her hands over his and turned her head toward him. "Thank you,"  
she whispered. He saw something in her eyes that he recognized, and a frown  
darkened his face.

"Why are you crying?" he asked.

She shook her head and smiled shakily. "Nothing. The pregnancy. It's  
making me really emotional. The littlest things makes me cry."

He laughed. "I thought you were a waterbender. Can't you guys control  
that kind of thing?"

She giggled and pushed his arm with a light hit. "You silly Fire Lord."

"You beautiful Fire Lady," he murmured against her neck, breathing  
against her skin.

She turned around and put her arms around him. They looked into each  
other's eyes for the softest of moments, and then she pushed herself against  
him, and he met her half way so that their lips could meet, that way they  
always did that made him think his heart would melt.

-

"What are the healers saying about the child?" Zuko asked as they ate  
breakfast. He would soon be leaving to meet with the Avatar, but he wanted to  
spend a little more time with her, so he used food as his excuse.

"It's healthy," she answered, determined to look at her fire flakes  
instead of him.

"Can they say anything about its bending abilities?" he asked.

She bit her lip and looked at him with steely eyes. "No, Zuko, they  
can't!" she said firmly. "So don't bother me about it anymore."

"I've never asked–"

"I know you're thinking about it. But we can't know until the baby's  
born, so stop it! I'm stressed enough as it is."

"What are you stressed about?" he dared ask.

It was strange to see fire in a waterbender's eyes.

"If you can't tell yourself, then I won't explain." She got to her  
feet in a hurry and walked toward the door.

His chair scrambled to the side as he hurried to catch her. His hand closed  
around her arm, and he pulled her back.

"What is going on, Katara?" he asked.

She looked at him with anger in her eyes, and she tried to pull away, but he  
didn't let her. "Let me go!" she hissed.

"Not before you answer!"

They stared at each other for a good ten seconds; then she raised her hand  
with a quick, smooth movement, but he caught it quickly and nailed it behind  
her back as crystals of ice fell to their feet. He gritted his teeth and felt  
his hands heating up.

"Don't ever try to attack me, Katara!" he said sternly.

She looked rebelliously at him, but then her mouth opened and she looked at  
him, blue eyes swelling up with tears.

"I'm … I'm sorry," she whispered in a voice so weak it was barely  
audible.

He removed his hands and wrapped his arms around her. She hid her face in his  
chest and began to cry. Her shoulders shook as the sobs came out in silent  
croaks, as if she was trying to hold them back. But as she continued to cry,  
she stopped resisting and simply stood in his arms, wetting his shirt.  
Suddenly he felt terribly guilty, knowing he had done this to her.

"I'm so sorry, Zuko," she cried, grasping his shoulders. "I … It  
was … I didn't mean to …" She shook her head. "Please … Please  
forgive me."

"Forget about it, Katara," he whispered, stroking her hair. "I think  
you should go back to your rooms and rest. Get some sleep. Maybe take a walk  
with Ty Lee or Toph."

She nodded slowly before she wormed herself out of his arms, tried to dry her  
cheeks with her hands, and then walked to the door where she continued out  
with the dignity of a Fire Lady. Zuko sighed and went to the bathroom to take  
a bath before he followed his wife's way through the hall and continued  
onward to the Fire Hall.

-

"But we should assume that the rebellion is getting information leaked from  
the inside," Zuko continued. "The rebels stands strong, and they find ways  
through to us that we cannot predict."

Aang nodded. "Yes, it is a difficult time. We stand on the brink of war.  
The Earth Kingdom is not the only nation in danger of this."

"I agree. Even the Air Nomads cannot bide them sure in these matters. I  
take it you've already warned them?" Zuko asked.

Aang nodded. "Of course." He smiled and looked with a telling glint in  
his eye: "But they reacted as is to be expected of monks: A wave on its own  
will eventually clash against the shore or die on its own, but if it is broken  
from the outside, it breeds new waves."

Zuko chuckled lightly. "Most definitely wisdom of the monks."

"But war can be looked at in many ways," Aang continued, pondering upon  
other philosophies. Then he laughed aloud. "This is where your uncle would  
say something like: we cannot predict the future, we can only follow the long  
road that it has laid for our feet."

Zuko smiled crookedly. After his cousin's death – killed by the earth  
rebels a few years back – his uncle, Iroh, waited till Zuko was old  
enough, and then he resigned from his duties as Fire Lord and left them for  
his nephew. Zuko's own father had already died. He remembered all too well  
as the enemy attacked. He'd been thirteen and helpless. His father had  
thrown himself in front of the attackers and been scarred enough that he had  
to be careful not to overdo anything the rest of his life. He could barely  
firebend anymore.

He passed only a few years later, which hurt Zuko's mother deeply. She  
moved to Ember Island to live her life out there, and rarely came to the  
palace.

"That sounds like something my uncle would say," Zuko murmured. "Is he  
well?"

Iroh had, after resigning from his position, traveled to the Earth Kingdom to  
function not only as an ambassador, but also to have political influence and  
to investigate and fight the rebellion. Zuko missed him very much. During the  
years after the death of Zuko's father, Iroh took care of Zuko and Azula as  
his own children, and so, Iroh grew to be a father figure to Zuko. This became  
an even stronger bond after Iroh's son died, because now he had to take  
still greater responsibility for his education, expecting his nephew to become  
the next Fire Lord.  
"As far as I know, he is well. He and Sokka are getting along surprisingly  
well," Aang responded. "They're both equally smart and stupid at the  
same time."  
Zuko laughed.  
"I'm not joking," Aang assured.  
"I believe you."  
Aang laughed with him. "I wonder when we'll see them again."  
"Soon, I hope," Zuko said, looking thoughtfully into the air. Katara  
would like her brother to come visit, too, and Toph had always been fond of  
Iroh.  
"If they get away from their Pai Sho table," Aang murmured, and they  
laughed again, before they returned to the dark subject of the Earth  
Rebellion.

-

The darkness was starting to grow outside. It was the second day of his  
homecoming, and he would soon be time to get the sleep that a Fire Lord needed  
to rule his nation. There was one more thing that needed to be done, and he  
felt it was urgent, which was why he wanted to do it tonight.

In time there was a knock on the door, and she was shown in. Her braid waved  
in the air like a swing, almost like it agreed with her cheery personality.

But Ty Lee wasn't smiling.

-

I get into the Zuko-mode way too easily! He's so funny to write! I love his trail of thought!

Anyway, this was a Zuko chapter ^^ And the next will be a Ty Lee one! Yepee!!

Please review ^^

Lythya


	9. Interrogation Ty Lee pov

Yay, chapter 8 ^^ Wuhu!

Chapter 8

Interrogation

Ty Lee pov.

"The Fire Lord is working hard.""I know."  
"I'm on my way to him now."  
"Tell him I said hello."  
Ty Lee watched Mai's morose face with hurt in her heart. Mai's neck  
was bowed, and her hair was fluttering in the wind, not even held in her  
typical double buns. She looked as though someone had emptied her entirely,  
and she was just a shell of the woman Ty Lee used to know. Her entire aura was  
crying.  
When they were little, Mai had always been gloomy and didn't have an  
easy way to laughter. Her parents' insistence on her being demure and polite  
had really damaged her. At times as an adult, she had been stubborn and  
deadpan, but this was different. Since Zuko had married Katara, Mai had  
changed rapidly. She was even paler than usual; she ate less, spoke less,  
laughed less; and at the same time, a burning anger filled her.  
"See you," Ty Lee murmured.  
She left Mai in the garden, sitting on a stone bench near the place they  
used to play as children, and hurried into the palace. Zuko was probably tired  
and needed her to be fast. She crossed the hallways in a blur and avoided any  
hindrance that may come in her way.  
Finally standing before the guards that stood outside Zuko's rooms, she  
asked them to let her in. They knocked on the door and then she was let in.  
Zuko was awaiting her in the receiving room, and she curtsied politely. He  
nodded to show his acceptance of the gesture, and more to it, it showed Ty Lee  
great respect.  
"You don't look like your usual self, Ty Lee," Zuko stated  
worriedly, cocking his head to the side.  
Ty Lee forced herself to smile and she waved apologetically. "I'm  
sorry, I'm sorry, everything's just a bit chaotic at the time, you know,  
taking care of four Fire Ladies at the same time, one of them pregnant."  
Zuko nodded.  
"But I'm not complaining," she hurriedly continued, suddenly afraid  
that he may assign her only one Fire Lady, and that this Fire Lady could be  
Katara. She did not wish for that to happen. If she absolutely had to serve  
only one Fire Lady, she wanted Mai or Azula.  
Ty Lee had seen straight through Zuko's mind, as thinking of assigning  
her only Katara had actually crossed his mind, but he quickly changed it  
again. Doing that to Mai would be cruel. He wasn't completely blind of the  
fact that Mai and Katara didn't like each other much.  
"Oh, and I was told to say 'hi' from Mai," Ty Lee added.  
She was thrilled on her friend's behalf that Zuko's face seemed to  
light up as he got this information.  
"So why did you call me, Fire Lord Zuko?" She winked at him, and he  
smiled.

"I've been away for quite some time now," he answered, and she nodded. They walked to the balcony where they sat down. "I need to be updated on how my wives are doing."

"They're doing well," Ty Le answered immediately. She wasn't certain if she was supposed to tell him the real situation.

"Ty Lee, I can see the truth. Something's wrong," he said.

She bit down her lip and looked anxiously at him. "I … I'm not sure what to tell you. Mai and Katara are extremely stressed."

"Mai, too?" Zuko mumbled.

"Especially Mai," Ty Lee agreed.

"So what are they stressed about?" he asked.

"You really don't know?" Her question fell hard, and he frowned, knowing he was supposed to know, but he couldn't figure it out. Seeing this, Ty Lee answered without another word from him: "They're worried, of course, about the status of First Wife." Ty Lee could almost hear the click in his head.

"So that's why Katara is so worried about the bending of the child,"

Zuko murmured. Ty Lee knew he saw the logic; he thought the same way, too. The  
child could not be considered for his successor if it didn't have firebending skills – that was why the Fire Lord took so many wives. To make sure he'd have a kid that was a firebender.  
He looked at the table between them without seeing, as if he was trying to wrap his mind around something very obvious, but something he did not want to accept.

"Toph is happy, though she misses her family, and she wishes that Katara and Mai were happier. She talks with Katara a lot, and she helps Mai through training. Katara and Toph sometimes get into fights, though, but they're always friendly ten minutes later." Zuko smiled at that. "Azula is only unhappy that she didn't get to go to the Earth Kingdom."

Zuko nodded and rested himself in the chair. "I expected as much. Your report is valuable to me, Ty Lee." He smiled at her. "It's a cruel world we're living in."

"Not cruel," Ty Lee stated. "It's just very screwed up."

He laughed and looked at her with warmth in his eyes. "It's a good thing you're with us, Ty Lee, or the world would look a lot darker."

Ty Lee put her hands at her sides and smiled. "Of course it would!"

They smiled at each other for a few seconds, before Zuko said: "Do you think that maybe Katara needs someone to look after her? You're preoccupied with all the wives, and I don't want to take you away from Mai and Azula."

"I think it would be a good idea if Katara got to have someone with her, someone who's on her side."

He nodded. "Then I'll send a letter to her brother and tell him tocome and bring his fiancé with him."

They said their goodbyes to each other before Ty Lee left. She wasn't sure if what had happened was for the better or for the worse, but she hoped that Mai would soon be back to normal again.


	10. Matters of Politics Azula pov

Hey! Chapter 9 is here ^^ Thanks for all the reviews, guys! I love them! Sorry it's been so long since I last updated!

Chapter 9

Matters of politics

Azula pov.

"Well, Mai, I really don't know if I could make him do that. It seems very unlikely," Azula told her old friend with raised eyebrows. For once, Azula was actually worried. Mai didn't look well. Not at all. In the last few days she'd become very pale, and her breathing was heavier than usual. Combined with her strange desires, she thought Mai might be literally lovesick.

_That's what you get for falling in love_, Azula thought contemptuously, and wrinkled her nose while shaking her head.

Mai sighed and fell into the chair as though her entire body had given up on  
keeping her standing. She looked very tired. Too tired. This wasn't normal.

"Mai, are you all right? You appear sick." She tried to appear concerned, although it looked more like she felt sick.

Mai put her hand on her forehead and breathed in deep breaths as if there was a limited amount of air in the world, and she was trying to get the most of it.

"I don't know. I haven't ever felt like this before. I feel extremely hot all the time, but then I'm just suddenly cold as ice." She gritted her teeth, and looked at her with an expression even stonier than usual. "What could it be that's wrong with me?" she asked Azula, not expecting any kind of answer.

But Azula looked at her with interested eyes. "How long is it since you were… alone with Zuko?"

Mai understood immediately what she meant.

"Two days before he left. About a month, maybe," she answered.

Azula nodded. "You've been stressed out a lot lately, and your mind has been set on other things, so you may not have thought about it, but Mai… when did you last have your period?"

Mai blinked once and then simply stared at Azula with her warm golden eyes that, when the light hit them just right like it did now, could look a soft shade of rose.

"You mean… You think I'm…" she stammered.

"Yes," Azula responded, leaning over the table with a conspiratorial grin. "You're pregnant." Mai's eyes were blank, and she stared at Azula dumbfounded.

"How … How did you know?" she asked in a throaty whisper.

"You're having heatstroke. It's typical for women who are carrying  
firebenders," Azula answered. "I was told my mother had it really badly with me. By the end of her pregnancy, she could barely walk around anymore without fainting." She saw Mai widen her eyes and her skin get a bit paler, and she added casually: "Not that that will happen to you – it was because I'm a Firebending prodigy. Though, seeing the reactions so early is special."

Mai was like a statue. She didn't move or even blink. Her fine skin was so white, she might as well be made of marble. Then, slowly, as if not sure herself whether she was able to move, she raised her hand and put it on her still-flat stomach.

"I'm … pregnant?"

"Looks like it," Azula said, "or else you have a very strange illness." She smiled wryly and teased: "Did you eat some water peasant food?"

Mai shot her a dirty glance and got to her feet. "I better go to my rooms."

"Of course," Azula agreed. "I'll make sure Ty Lee visits you."

Mai nodded. "But," she added, looking seriously at the princess, "you will talk with him, will you not?"

Azula shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Don't push it." Mai crunched her teeth together and walked out of the room with dignity hanging like a veil behind her.

Azula got up quickly and went to her balcony. She was wearing trousers and a blouse, not a dress, so what she was about to do was no problem, and even if she did have a dress on, she wouldn't have cared.

She jumped over the banister and set off from the wall, stretched out her legs and felt a soft, familiar warmth run down her legs from her stomach, and a blast of fire from her feet sent her flying through the sky. She let go of the fire quickly and let herself fall till she was close to the earth. Then she created a bit of fire again, just to soften the landing.

This was in Ty Lee's favorite part of the garden. In one end, blue violets grew, close up to the sweet, pink lilies, that reminded one of Ty Lee in many ways. A big willow tree grew near a little, quiet river, which wormed its way through the miniature garden. Flat stones were laid out around the river, and nowhere was weeds to be found.

The grass was soft and bent under her feet as she wandered across the little lawn towards the bench where she thought she might find the one she was looking for. As she'd hoped, Ty Lee was sitting there, her face turned toward the sun, humming some melody. Ty Lee spent most of her free time in this garden, training or just relaxing.

Azula stopped and gathered her hands in her front.

"Are you enjoying the sun, Ty Lee?" she asked in her stridently fierce voice.

Ty Lee opened her eyes in a whim and was on her feet. "Azula!" she exclaimed, making a little, excited jump.

Azula crossed her arms and rested he head against her left leg. "Ty Lee, Mai's not feeling well, go help her."

Ty Lee nodded. "Is she sick?" she asked.

Azula smiled a wicked smile. "Sort of," she answered. "I'm almost certain she's pregnant."

Ty Lee's eyes widened and she clasped her hands together. "Pregnant?" she whispered. Then she gave out a squeal of joy, doing two quick cartwheels, then standing on her hands and clapping with her feet. "She must be so happy!"

"Probably not as thrilled as you are," Azula said, with slight disproval.

"You should probably run off to her room."

"I will!"

"Come see me afterwards," Azula shouted as Ty Lee began running. Ty Lee just barely heard her.

"Sure!" she called over her shoulder.

-

A knock on the door was all, then she heard the door creak open down the hall.

"Azula!" Ty Lee sang, and she heard her dancing toward her study room.

Azula looked up from her papers and waved at the widely grinning Ty Lee with a doubting face.

"What is it, Ty Lee?" she asked.

Ty Lee danced over to her and stood behind her chair.

"I spoke with Mai! She said you said that she might be carrying a strong firebender," Ty Lee answered.

"Yea, I said that," Azula responded.

"Katara hasn't been having those kinds of symptoms. What kind of symptoms does a woman carrying a waterbender get? Never mind! You know what this means, right?"

Azula sighed. "Yea. Zuko's choice."

"He can't drag it out much longer. And we all know he'll choose one of them. And now that Mai is having a strong little firebender, he'll be sure to pick her." Ty Lee sounded so optimistic, Azula smiled, enjoying the moment, grabbing the power offered to her immediately.

"We cannot predict my brother's choices. If he'd been really smart, he would have just stuck with me and Mai. It doesn't happen very often that the Fire Lord marries someone from the other nations, much less other kinds of benders, because of the complications, but Zuko is all nuts for the crazy women." She gave out a little, false giggle. "Furthermore, if he still decides on Mai, who knows if Mai will accept?"

"What do you mean?" Ty Lee asked in a quiet voice. Her bliss was obviously destroyed.

Azula was enjoying herself more and more. "Mai is very stubborn. If Zuko chooses her simply because of their child, she may refuse to become the first wife, and refuse to let him have the child." She smiled widely, finding the idea more and more fascinating. "Mai might just one day disappear without any of us knowing."

Ty Lee was quiet for a minute before she gathered herself up and said: "Mai … Mai wouldn't do that. She wouldn't do that to us."

"She'd do it to Zuko. To Katara. To the nation. Don't worry." Azula padded Ty Lee's hand. "She'll probably try and contact us after a few years."

"But …" Azula stood and put a hand on Ty Lee's shoulder. "There is also the possibilities of …" she wrapped herself behind Ty Lee and now had both her hands on the other's shoulders, "death."

"Death?" Ty Lee sounded shocked. Azula saw the goose bumps on her neck.

"Yes. Strong firebenders have been lost during pregnancy. Extremely strong firebenders kill their mothers during their growth. It's an extremely dangerous period for the woman," the fire lady continued, "and it's also very, very …" she leaned over to put her lips at Ty Lee's ear and whispered the last word, "painful."

Ty Lee shuddered and then jumped forward. "I have to go to Mai's rooms! She could be dying right now without any of us knowing! And we need to talk with Zuko about guards! She needs fifty! Less won't do! Then she'll easily break free."

"And what?" Azula laughed. "Fifty is going to prevent her from running off?"

Ty Lee hesitated. "No, but … They'll slow her down enough so that we can stop her."

Azula rolled her eyes. "Tell her I'll visit her later."

Ty Lee nodded and ran off.

Azula laughed loudly as soon as Ty Lee was out the door.

-

"Let me in!" she ordered. The guards didn't dare go against a direct order from her, so without even knocking on the door, they let her in.

"Zu-zu!" she called. "Oh, little Zu-zu, where are you?"

She smiled with her arms crossed over her chest as he came into sight with a thunderstorm in his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you to _stop … calling me … Zu-zu_?" he asked through clenched teeth. "It's disgraceful for the Fire Lord to be called such things!"

She clapped his cheek with a smirk. "Oh, little Zu-zu is sad now, is he?" Then her eyes shot lightning and she poked him mercilessly with her sharp nail. "Though not as sorry as he's gonna be!"

He sighed, and they both turned to go into the next room and sit down in the tearoom. They didn't sit down.

"Look, I know you're angry about the whole not-going-to-the-Earth-Kingdom thing –"

"I'm not just angry. I'm furious," Azula added and sat down with a cool face, and she looked very much like nothing was bothering her. Zuko didn't let himself be fooled. Azula was a master at prevarication.

"It's the past, Azula. Get over it," Zuko advised her.

The face of his sister darkened rapidly. As smoothly as she'd sat down, she now rose to her feet and walked over to him in a snaky flow. She stopped right in front of him with lightning in her eyes.

"Do you remember our deal when I became your wife?" she asked, but before Zuko could respond, she'd already moved on. "It included that I would have political influence and freedom, and that I would travel with you on important journeys, as your bodyguard, wife, companion and political ally. Remember, Zuko, that's our deal! _Don't_ break it!"

Zuko's face had become harder, and they stared at each other for a long time. Azula knew she would win. She was on the right. Even if she wasn't, she would have won anyway.

He sighed. "_Fine_! I apologize for not taking you with me."

She smirked. "Th_ank_ you, Zu-zu," she said and leaned toward him so she could put her arms around his neck. With a grin she pulled herself up and kissed him with unbreakable force.

She pulled back and looked into his annoyed eyes with a laughter.

"So are we eating dinner with Avatar Aang again tonight?" she asked as she pulled away and walked back to her seat. "I have a feeling Toph would like to see him again."

"And what about you? Are you looking forward to an opportunity to swim in the political possibilities?" Zuko asked grudgingly as he sat down in front of her.

She shrugged. "Who knows," she answered. She turned her head away from him and called for a servant in an annoyed voice, and she ordered tea to be served immediately.

"Actually, I am expecting the avatar in a few minutes," Zuko objected.

Her eyes shot lightning once more. "Oh, I won't mind at all."

They had another eye battle, but Zuko – very wisely – didn't dare fight with her now.

-

"No, I believe that will not help in our case, Avatar," Azula insisted. "If we take such soft measures at hand, they'll soon be walking all over us."

"Azula," Zuko said sternly, but she ignored him, as to be expected.

She leaned toward the Avatar. "We are on the brig of war! If something isn't done soon –"

"We will not use unnecessary violence," Avatar Aang cut her off.

Her eyes froze. "Unnecessary? All of our lives are in danger, but you just let them wander around like it's okay? We need to take them out immediately. And we need to find this source that is lacking out information."

Avatar Aang watched her for a moment, before he turned to Zuko, who nodded.

"So you agree with each other? As to be expected." His eyes got a glimmer of something Azula hadn't seen before. "You are the Fire Nation. It's in your blood. But I'm and Air nomad, and I was raised differently."

"Excuse me _what_ is in our blood?" Azula asked furiously. How dared he talk down to her? How dared he make her something and put her in a box? How dared he _think_, even _ponder_ upon the_ thought_, that _he_ knew _anything_ about her?

"I think you know," the Avatar answered. "The boiling blood. The anger. The burning."

Azula's hands knotted, and he nodded. "Yes, you know." She bit down her lip in frustration.

"I think that as long as it is at this state, the earth rebels needs to be taken care of with an easy hand. We have to offer them a compromise."

"A compromise?" Azula asked in a controlled voice. She laughed. "So people who ruin other's lives should have a compromise?" She looked at Zuko with eyes that sparkled strangely. Zuko wondered how even her eyes could lie. "Did you hear, Zuko? People like those who attacked you and dad should have compromises." Zuko's face got a bit pale.

"It's not like that," the Avatar stated.

Azula turned back to him with a smile. "But of course it is. People are getting killed, and we need to do something about that, right? Or the earth rebels will soon know that we fear them, and that we won't do anything." Her eyes turned a bit freezy again, though not entirely. "We have to let them know how to fear us. If we don't, they'll attack _us_, and they'll take full control."

"We must not break the balance," the Avatar tried to tell her, but never having had much to do with Azula, he didn't know it was a lost cause. He didn't know Azula always got what she wanted in the end.

But he could feel it. He could feel that this woman – this woman was ruthless. She had no restraints.

"The balance is already being broken," Azula told him sincerely. Then she took an artistic break and looked a bit up in the air, before she sighed. "Or maybe it already is. I mean, if the Earth Kingdom is thrown over, well …" She shook her head. "This could evolve. The new rulers might want even more, and they'll attack one of the other elements."

Avatar Aang's eyes darkened. "That's a long way out there," he said.

"So are spirits," Azula responded. Their eyes stared in to each other with a war coming. The troops were getting ready in there.

But then Avatar Aang interrupted it.

"Then why don't you see for yourself that I'm right?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows, refusing to be confused. "What do you mean?"

"You were angry that you didn't get to go with your brother to the Earth Kingdom. I travel a lot more than he does. I would be honored if you would travel with me, not only as a bodyguard, but also as an ambassador, so that you can tell him," he nodded to Zuko, "and his council, that I'm right."

There was very quiet. Azula's might as well have been made in stone. Her eyes narrowed, and her bottom lip stuck out as a little child's.

It was as if everyone was holding their breathes, until Azula said: "Zuko, will you allow this?"

"You have your freedom," Zuko answered. She heard it all in there. He was shocked that the Avatar had taken such an act without council from his side, but he would not have refused if asked. He thought that this might be for the best, and not only for them.

"Good." She turned to the Avatar. "Then I will take your offer, but now I must take my leave. Please excuse me."

She got up in a smooth, yet edgy, movement, and found her way out of there and on to the hallway. She walked back to where the Fire Ladies had their rooms and got to her own, but before she stepped inside, she realized she would not stay in there, so she turned around and started walking again. She felt the guard's confused gazes on her back.

As a concealed thunderstorm, that concealed itself as a cumulus cloud, she went to the outdoor training grounds, where she immediately ran her fingers through the air in circular movements, until blue lightning started forming. She sharpened her mind, and thus the lightning. Her mind found ease. She was no longer annoyed or angry, she was determined.

With all her force, she directed the lightning to the sky, where it spread over the training grounds.

She gathered her energies and once more directed it toward the sky, but in the last moment, she changed her mind and turned it to the ground a little from her, and rock and earth overwhelmed her in an explosion. She reacted quickly and sent sharp flames toward her self-created enemies, and her power overtook it. She won.

She smiled and shot a few more blue fire balls, jumped in the air and kicked fire to all sides, before she flicked a wave of fire over the destroyed area.

"Beautiful lightning, Azula?"

She turned to look at Ty Lee, smiling as widely as ever. "It's really loud! But why did you … what do they call it? Dig up? Ruin? Ah, I know – why did you tear up the ground?"

Azula shrugged. "Training," she answered.

"Gosh, Azula, you look tense," she said, looking at her with worried eyes.

"Do I?" Azula asked, twitching her lips.

"Yea. You want me to give you a chi massage?" She winked. "You know I'm good at it."

Azula smirked. Then she went to Ty Lee's side and sat down on one of the stone benches. She pulled down the strips on her shirt and felt Ty Lee's feathery hands brush away her hair. Then she felt the smooth fingers move over her back, and she leaned forward so Ty Lee had an easier way to her work.

"How does this feel?" she asked.

"Hmm," Azula answered. "It feels good, Ty Lee."

"Good," she heard her say.

She felt her body go smooth and relaxed in no time, and the flow of her bending seemed stronger than before. Like she could do anything.

"Thanks, Ty Lee," she said.

"Any time," Ty Lee responded.

-

Now, this was a chapter with both Zucest and Tyzula, just as has been requested. Now, you can see, I'm not lying :) As long as the pairing fits with the overall plot, I'll put it in there.

But since many of you who review are anonymous, and I can't write back – at least I don't know how to – then please also write with the pairing you want in there, whether you want it to be a physical relationship, purely platonic love or something in between?

Cookies if you review :)

Dawn


	11. In the midst of Crazy Toph pov

Hi guys! Thank you so much for all of you reviews :) There are still many of them that are anonymous so I can't respond to them . This is sad, since many have comments/questions that I seriously want to answer! So please, if you write longer comments, log in or something, or tell me how to find your user.

Of course, I still note what couples anonymous people request – mention the couple/friendship/other-wacky-stuff and I'll see if I can add it.

I have a question for y'all, though. This story is going to be loooong, I don't know the ending yet, and no, it's NOT certain to end with Maiko! Believe it or not, I like other couples ;) (This is basically because of the fact that I like MAI with others, not Zuko with others xD But, as you can see, I can write Zutara.)

Anyway! I am, once again, getting off the subject!

Because this story is so long, I'm going to part it into several parts. The part you're reading now is sort of an "introducing the story"-story on about 20 chapters. Like The Fellowship of the Ring. After those 20 chapters, the story will REALLY begin. Of course, the first 20 chapters need to be read still xD

NO! I'm getting away again!

Bottom line: do you want the different parts to be divided into several fan fictions, or stay on the same? If that made any sense, please respond!

I won't hold you back anymore :) Have a good time reading! And please review ^^

-

Chapter 10

In the midst of crazy

Toph pov.

"Take _that_! And _this_!"

She felt the vibrations of feet moving, and she changed her position so she was facing toward the steps, always listening, always feeling.

"There!" she declared, lifting another stone and sending it towards the steps. She felt the body change and jump out of the way. There was another movement, and she lifted a wall of earth around her. She heard loud _thuds_ as confirmation of her assumption. She smiled.

"Can't keep up, huh, _Mai_?" she teased, sending her wall flying through the air, and then secretly stomped her feet in the ground to make another attack.

"Uh!" Mai cough, getting out of the way of the first attack, and then feeling the ground change beneath her. Toph was displeased that she got out of the way.

A gushing sound through the air warned her, and she threw herself to the ground, then feeling the vibration of knives hitting the ground a little away from her.

"Hey!" she shouted, but knowing Mai well, she hurried to raise another wall. The sounds and vibrations of the knives. She parted the wall in three and shot two rocks toward Mai through the holes that the now three walls created.

Mai were moving toward her on light feet, almost unfathomable, and she knew that there were already knives moving toward her.

She raised walls all around her, smiling. Then she heard a lot of thuds and felt vibrations in a half-circle around her. With an arrogant laugh, she said: "You'll have to do better than _that_!"

But then she realized that she could suddenly no longer see Mai. Not as profoundly. She was all fuzzy. Worse than sand.

"Hey!" she gasped.

New thuds sounded, and her heart started hammering. The thuds came nearer and nearer, but it seemed as if the fuzzy shadow of Mai was moving away. The thuds continued all around her and on her walls.

_What are you doing?_ she thought, trying to figure out what Mai was doing.

In a desperate attempt to find out where she was and get on equal footing again, she sent shakings around her, trying to make her fall. That should make some good, usable vibrations.

But no. Nothing came.

"Okay! You're asking for it, then!" she shouted.

She began stomping so that piles of earth would jump up and down outside. She thought she might see a little better, and then she suddenly felt Mai's feet on one of her piles.

"There you are!" she muttered with a smirk, sending attacks in that direction.

But Mai was already gone. What was she doing? The angle of her feet when she jumped suggested that she was moving …

… in her direction!

"Hey!" she shouted, but only a second after she was surrounded by ear ringing thuds, and she knew she was surrounded.

"I won," Mai stated in an annoyingly uncaring voice from above. She felt her clearly now, standing upon her walls.

"You cheated!" Toph stated, lowering the walls, forcing Mai to jump off.

"I didn't," Mai answered, not sounding insulted as all.

"Of course you did! I couldn't see you!"

"I walked on my knives," Mai answered.

Silence spreaded between them.

"Pff," Toph snorted, feeling the knives surrounding them.

"Mai!"

A piercing voice interrupted them. Azula.

Toph was surprised that she was talking like this to Mai; like she was trying to teach something to a little child, like Mai was doing something utterly moronic, as if she had the total control of her. It was also a bit arrogant, Toph added to her thoughts.

She'd only hear her talk like that to Ty Lee.

"What is it, Azula?" Mai asked.

Was it just her imagination, or were Mai's voice more opposing than it had ever been toward Azula?

"You shouldn't be doing that. It's not healthy. I'm guessing you're not feeling well right now," Azula noted.

Mai was silent. Toph didn't understand, and she listened to Mai's vibrations. She heard her heartbeat.

It was frantic.

It was moving at a difficult speed, and Toph wondered what was the trigger. She thought she might hear Mai pant a little bit, too, which she never did during or after fights. Well, she never panted at all.

"We were just training," she said, still listening to Mai's heart. It was slowing down a bit now, and Mai began moving again, as if she'd frozen while her heart had worked on full power.

She went to the side of the training ground, drinking some water. Her heart settled down a little bit more.

"Mai shouldn't be training right now, Toph," Azula told her, and Toph wrinkled her nose. She hated when Azula spoke to her like that.

"Well how was I supposed to know that?" she asked, placing her hands against her hips. "And why shouldn't she be training?"

"_I didn't ask for it!_" Mai suddenly shouted, turning in a quick rush. "I didn't _want_ this!"

"Don't be silly, Mai, of course you did!" Azula told her fiercely, and it was clear that she was displeased with her old friend.

"Why hasn't he sent for me yet? _Why_?" Mai spit through clenched teeth. Toph listened interested. Mai was angry. This was how she sounded when she was angry.

"If you tell him he will probably sent for you all the time," Azula answered. "You'll get tired of it."

"I shouldn't _have_ to tell him!"

"Mai, don't be so stub –"

"I'm going to do as I want." Mai's voice was suddenly very calm and just as normal as it was before the fight. "No one can stop me. I'm the Fire Lady. I can do whatever I want."

Azula was silent before she said: "Fine. Do as you want."

With much wonder, Toph realized that there hadn't been a revolutionary collision. Mai had stood her ground. Toph had expected Azula to be angry. She wasn't. She accepted Mai's stubbornness, much as – Toph put together now – she always did. Of what was probably old habit from when they were children, Azula ordered Mai around, but Mai had, apparently, never been easy to order to do anything she didn't want to do. So now Azula's orders were more advices that Mai took most of the time.

Azula left, and Mai began gathering her knives.

"If you're feeling bad we can get the servants to do that," Toph proposed, knowing that Mai put much effort and honor into her knives and didn't like to let others collect them. It was her substitute for bending.

"I'm not feeling bad," Mai said.

"Your heart was just racing like I-don't-know-what. You're sick, aren't you? That's why Azula told you not to train."

Mai fell silent. It was a strange silence, not like others that Mai had created. Mai was of nature a quiet and thoughtful being, but her raising had strengthened these traits. But this was different. As if she was struggling with herself.

"I'll gather them myself. I can do as much," she finally said.

"You beat me. Of course you can do as much," Toph murmured. "But why didn't Azula want you to train?"

"You're right. I'm not … feeling very well," Mai murmured.

"Then you should go rest."

Mai began collecting her knives again. "I'm fine," she said with her face turned away. "Just fine."

-

"Well this is just pretty," Ty Lee chimed, and it sounded as if she clapped her hands together. She was helping Toph putting on her dress.

"I guess I'll take your word for it," she mumbled. Ty Lee laughed.

"Well, you're all ready to go see the Fire Lord," she said, patting Toph's shoulder.

"Ty Lee?"

"Mhmm," answered Ty Lee.

"What's wrong with Mai?"

Ty Lee stopped, but she didn't reach exactly as Toph had expected; freezing.

"Azula told Mai she shouldn't be training," she hurried to explain.

"She was _training_?" Ty Lee asked, outraged at the thought.

"What? What's wrong with that?" Toph asked.

Ty Lee relaxed. "Well, maybe it's ok this early on," she wondered aloud.

"_What?_"

It knocked on the door, and they both turned. Toph knew who it was.

She lifted her arm and pulled it back in a quick movement. Her doors and most of her room was made of rock and stone so that she could move around and do as she wanted. Therefore she could also open her own door whenever she felt like from wherever.

"Thanks, Toph," Katara said, walking in to the room. "Oh." She stopped – probably because of Ty Lee.

"I'll go," Ty Lee said, patting Toph's shoulder again. "Mai might want company."

She went out the door, and Toph noticed that Katara moved a lot out of the way for her.

As soon as she was out on the hall Toph closed the door.

"What if we wanted company?" Katara muttered. "Didn't she think of _that_?"

"Who bend your water, sugar queen?"

"I already told you not to call me that!"

Katara seemed annoyed for some reason. Must be the pregnancy.

"So what's up?" Toph asked.

"Not much, I guess," Katara answered, seeming uncomfortable. Zuko just told me that he sent a message to my brother. He'll be visiting."

"Well that's _great_ news!" Toph stated, throwing her arms in the air. "You must be happy to see him again?"

"I guess I'm looking forward to him visiting. And he does work with the Avatar," she mumbled.

"Katara, why are you all acting like a bundle of alligator butterflies?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You're all weird," Toph stated, sighing. "Well, I'm off to see Zuko. See ya."

"Hey!" Katara shouted behind her, but Toph ignored her and continued out to the hall.

She hadn't walked for long before she felt the vibrations of the arrogant steps that belonged to Azula.

"Toph!" she called. "You're going to see Zuko, aren't you?"

"Yea," answered Toph, stopping in front of the Fire Lord's sister.

"I just wanted to ask you not to tell Mai," she said.

"What? Why?" Toph asked.

"Well, Zuko still hasn't contacted her," Azula answered. "It's not healthy for her to worry more than she already is."

"But it's been more than a week since he came home!" Toph exclaimed.

"I know," Azula said, and Toph could tell that she was displeased with her brother.

"What is it that's wrong with her?"

Azula positioned herself in a way that Toph recognized as: I know better than you. She imagined that Azula might be smiling.

"You'll see," she answered, and then she went her own way on what Toph would describe as happy feet.

With a sigh Toph continued down the hall.

-

She tried to even her breathing and stop the giggles before she continued: "Katara told me that you'd invited her brother to visit. I think Katara's happy about it."

Zuko lifted his glass to take another sip of the excellent wine.

"She said that?" he asked. It sounded like he was smiling

Toph shrugged. "I just know. It'll be good for her to have someone like him here."

"That's exactly what I thought," he answered in a voice that sounded a bit too blurry for him. Toph thought he might have had a little too much.

"What is it?" she asked, sensing there was a double meaning in his words.

"I was just wondering if there was something _you_ wanted. Do you want your family to come visit?" he asked.

"My family?" Her mind went blank thinking of them.

"Or would it be better if you went home to visit them?"

Toph felt chills run up her spine. That would mean crossing the sea, and she did _not_ like that.

"No, I don't want that."

Zuko coughed some sort of laugh. "Yea, I can imagine."

"How about the Avatar? Is he leaving again soon?" asked Toph.

"The Avatar will leave soon, but not very soon. He's preparing," Zuko answered.

"For what?" Toph asked.

"A gathering," Zuko answered. "The leaders of the world will gather to find a resolve to the problem."

"I hope my parents are not in problems with the rebels," Toph said, the thought suddenly occurring in her mind.

"I don't think you have to worry about the Bei Fong," Zuko responded. "You must already know that they have a way with things."

Toph smiled. "We do."

-

"What did you do that for?!" Toph demanded as she felt her clothes soaking wet. Without giving it any thought, she sent a quake of earth towards Katara.

Katara hurried out of the way and fell into the pond where turtleducks hurried out of the way.

"Stop it right there," Azula said in a sinister voice. "Now you both look terrible and we have to look presentable in five minutes."

Katara got up and pulled back water from Toph and probably herself.

"Katara could just _not_ splash water at me!" she raged.

"You could just listen to me! I've tried to talk to you for the last ten minutes!" Katara responded furiously.

"How trivial," Mai sighed.

Katara turned immediately toward her and said: "What now? Too boring for you?"

Toph heard the sound of water and then Mai's whispery: "Hey!"

Mai was angry, that was for sure, and so was Katara.

"You can't do anything to me with those!" Katara declared, and Toph guessed that Mai had pulled her knives.

"Wanna bet?" Mai challenged.

"Stop it!" Azula shouted, and Toph felt the hot stain of flames around her. "Katara, dry Mai's clothes!"

"Why _should_ I? She wouldn't be bored while she go change and leave us alone!" Katara spat out.

"_Katara_!" Azula said in such a dangerous voice that there only went a few seconds before the sound of Katara obeying reached Toph.

"Water peasant!" Mai said in a deadpan voice that seemed very icy.

"Succubus!"

The garden fell silent.

"_What_ did you call me?" Mai shouted in that throaty voice of hers.

"You heard me!" Katara shouted back.

"Stop it!" Azula ordered as Toph stepped forward and spread her arms to create two piles of earth that sent both Mai and Katara backwards from each other, as they launched forward to attack.

"Both of you, act_ civilized_!" Azula told them harshly.

Mai didn't respond but simply turned away and started to walk.

"Mai!" Azula called. "You have to stay here!"

"Whatever!" Mai hissed. "I'm leaving. I won't stand for that hopeless fraud anymore."

"Wait, Mai!" Ty Lee called and quickly hurried to her side. She showed no sign of wanting to stop Mai, but she simply followed her.

Azula didn't seem to feel obligated to call for the servants, so Toph took on that job. Katara was pregnant, after all.

When the servants arrived, Azula ordered two of them to go look how Mai was doing. Toph felt that she was wasting resources. Mai was fine, of course. She wasn't pregnant like Katara.

But then she remembered that Azula didn't want Mai to be straining herself, and she thought of that strange illness Mai was suffering from.

She didn't get the time to put more thought in to it, for a few minutes after, they were told that Katara's brother had arrived.


	12. A strange illness Katara pov

I'm sorry I haven't uploaded in the last two weeks, but I haven't really been feeling like writing, because my computer got a virus that deleted everything, so I'm on my laptop now, which doesn't have all the notes that I had made for this fanfic! – or all my other fanfics, for that matter.

So I had to write all that ALL OVER! We're talking about a list over all the chapters in the series! That's MANY chapters! And then the notes over the plot and such. Ugh "-.-

But now I'm back :) So enjoy this chapter and all those that will follow!

-

Chapter 11

A strange illness

Katara pov.

"I'm fine," she assured once more.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Zuko's eyes were glimpsing towards her with worry and impatience. He'd let the Avatar and her brother go on with the wives to ensure that she was all right. When he'd noticed that Mai was gone, he'd immediately dug into the business and gotten Azula to tell him what had happened.

Katara nodded once more. "Yes. The healers said so, too. Everything should be fine." She smiled. "Besides, I'm a bit of a healer myself."

He smiled back at her and then reached for her hand. "Then we should hurry. It's bad manners to let your brother wait when you haven't seen him in so long."

She grimaced and hurried along with him as she tried to count how long it was since she last saw Sokka. It had to be at least four months since last time. He'd been so busy in the Earth Kingdom, that they had only seen each other at her wedding. And before that ... She didn't even want to think about how long they'd been separated then.

"There you are!" Sokka called to them from down the hall. Katara narrowed her eyes to get a better look at him, and she smiled widely. Zuko let go of her hand as Sokka ran towards them and embraced her in a brotherly bear hug. Her breath got knocked out of her, and she spent a few devastating seconds with trying to snap in air, while he lulled her from side to side.

"Uhm, Sokka, Kataras pregnant, so I don't think that's very healthy for her," Zuko noted.

_You mean for the baby,_ Katara thought sadly. She kept her eyes focused on Sokka and not on Zuko when her brother released her.

"It's good to see you again, little sister," Sokka said in a deep voice.

Katara was taken aback and stared at him. "You've grown even taller!" she exclaimed. "You must be at least two heads taller than me now!"

Sokka grinned at her. "I sure am. And you always teased me with my height." He squirmed and elbow in between her ribs, and she jumped away with a giggle.

"Well, you were always so little! Everybody was worried that you would stay a little boy forever," she teased and grabbed his arm, testing his muscles. "My, my, you even grew muscles. What did they teach you on that north pole?"

He grinned at her and laid his arm around her shoulders. It was so long that it continued a good space from out her right shoulder.

"They taught us to be real men, you know! The kind that a little girl like you could never beat!" he told her.

A hard laughter boomed through the hallway. "He's still going on about that," Suki said while making her way to Katara, whom she hugged almost as tightly as Sokka had. "It's good to see you again, sister-in-law."

"That's right," Katara exclaimed. "How far off is the wedding?"

"Not far," Suki told her, "but all these meetings are delaying it." She shot Sokka a deadly glance, and Sokka gave out a nervous laughter, moving his arm from Katara to get as far away from Suki without seeming offending. He rubbed the back of his head as he looked around on the others.

"So, should we get to dinner, or what?" he asked.

That reminded Katara of what had happened earlier, and despite herself, she sought out Mai's face to see her expression – and found nothing.

Just as she was about to ask, Zuko demanded: "Where is Mai?"

Azula was the one to answer, and she did so in an instant.

"She isn't feeling well. Ty Lee is with her:"

Katara watched Zuko for a moment, wondering what he was thinking. Was he angry at Mai for what she'd done, or was he now worried about why she wasn't feeling well?

Katara looked at Azula, feeling instinctively that the woman was keeping something hidden from her – not that this was very unusual, but since Katara also felt that it was about Mai, she became curious. In the depth of her heart, she needed to know what was going on with Mai. Mai was important business to Katara, since Mai was the one thing threatening her position as First Wife. What was going on with Mai that Azula wasn't telling? Why did Ty Lee's eyes constantly flicker to Mai every other second, worried about something?

She needed to know, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

"When will she be coming?" Zuko asked.

"I don't think she will," Azula responded icily, and then she suggested that they go eat their dinner.

-

The morning was cold, and a slight breeze made its way over the yards of the palace. Katara pulled her new cape closer around her shoulders. Sokka had gotten it for her from the north pole. It was a fine cape, the same as water tribe noble women used. He'd gotten her a bunch of other fine stuff, too, like a beautiful blue dress that matched her eyes, and an bracelet made of seashells. Those were just a few of the things he'd given her, and she was excessively happy that he'd bothered. It was just what she'd needed to make her mood go up.

She smiled, trying to be happy. But it was a lost cause, since she was still thinking about Zuko's back when he left the room, and when she later heard that he'd visited Mai in her room, and that he didn't leave after going in. She'd been awake the most of the night, listening for when he would leave, but in the end she fell in to a restless sleep.

And now she was standing on her balcony, looking down into the lush garden from which a nice fragrance came. The dew on the plants made everything sparkle, and she felt more at home in the Fire Nation at this time of day than any other time. She decided to go down in to the garden before the dew would evaporate under the heat from the sun.

As she found her way to one of the palace's many gardens, she thought about Sokka and Suki and how easy they were having it. They had only each other, no one else that could make their relationship tangled and complicated. They could just get to love one another. Katara wondered if Sokka, in the middle of all his bliss, ever thought that she might not be as happy as she gave off. She didn't think so. He was already busy, and it wasn't in his nature to think about such things as complicated and hurtful love.

She sighed, trying just to be happy for her brother, and not envy him his simple life too much. Envy him how easy he had it, his success … Being a man, getting to do what he wanted. He wasn't held back by a bunch of stupid rules like the water tribe women were. Katara had been held back, too. She was an excellent healer, and she had been applauded as such, but no one had ever taught her how to use her skills differently. She had had to teach herself that, and she knew a master was needed to become truly great.

Even though Toph was a proof that that didn't necessarily have to be true. Katara wondered if she would have been better if she had had a master, if she hadn't left the south pole to become Zuko's wife … In the Fire Nation they didn't have such strange rules. Capability, not gender, decided your faith here.

Katara's eyes drifted off towards the garden she was on her way to, when she heard a whispering song in the air, and turned towards the little stone port that led into another little garden. Katara thought she might recognize the sound, and when she got to the stone port, she found out that she was right. Just as she'd guessed, it was Mai's knives cutting through the air with whistling noises. Seeing her practice in the little yard made Katara breathe easier than before. If Mai had left her room, then Zuko certainly had.

Katara smiled to herself and placed her hand over her growing belly. She'd become larger, and she wondered when she was due. She could feel the life growing inside her, and yet again she wondered what it would be: What gender? What kind of bender? What personality? There were so much to think about, and she was only occupied by Zuko's choice. Even if he chose Mai, Katara would still have her child, and that would be Zuko's first child. Mai could never take that away from her.

The frantic panting reached her ears, and she looked up to find Mai swaying, her feet trying to find a better way to keep her balance. She was reaching for her stomach with her one hand, and her forehead with the other. Katara could see that she was falling, and the knives around her wasn't proving to be a good place to land. It was too late.

Katara was frozen while Mai fell, and she tried to tell herself to close her eyes, but nothing was connecting. She could only stare as Mai's body fell down on a dozen of knives, stare as the body shook in convulsed pain, and crept around itself.

"Mai!" Katara exclaimed and set off from the spot she'd planted herself, moving her hands in the air around her to gather all the dew from the plants, ready to heal what she could.

But …

She stopped, only a few meters away from Mai.

If Mai died, there would be no hesitation left in Zuko's heart. He'd announce his choice right away, and she could become happy as the only woman he truly loved. Her future would be bright, certain. She wouldn't have to worry anymore.

She shook her head. It would still hurt Zuko if Mai died, and if Zuko knew that she was hesitating to save Mai … That she was thinking about leaving her … He'd despise her.

She bowed down, the water floating around her right hand, while she carefully tried to turn Mai around. Her right side was cut through with the sharp knives she specialized in. Katara reached for them and carefully tried to force them out, but she found it rather difficult to do without hurting Mai even more.

"Mai!" she tried calling while shaking the woman's shoulder as gently as possible. Katara watched as Mai's expression changed a little bit, flickering in pain. "Mai!" Katara put her free hand on Mai's cheek, intending to shake her head, but quickly refrained when she felt the hot.

Mai was burning!

"Mai!" she gasped and tried to lay the woman in a way so that she did not lie on any knives. Then she mercilessly hurried to take out the knives, and with her now free left hand, she gathered a bit more water from the dew around them.

She gathered everything in the right hand, and then she opened Mai's clothes enough so that she could see the left side, the one that was stained in blood. Katara swiftly placed the water over the wounds, and then she healed with all she had in her. She watched the wounds closely as they healed, but it was too slow. Her heart was hammering in a desperate rhythm, and she was worried what was going on with Mai. This temperature … It wasn't normal. She could die.

Katara remembered Azula and Ty Lee's strange actions lately. Mai really was sick. But if she was this sick … What was she doing outside, _training_?

The wounds finally seemed to have disappeared, though there were a few small scars at some places, but Katara couldn't concentrate on that.

She moved the water so that it covered Mai's entire body, and she bend more water over to her. She only left Mai's mouth and nose free so that she could breathe.

Then Katara stopped. She had no idea what to do now. What was it she was trying to heal. How should she go about it? Could she might be doing more damage than good?

"Katara?"

Relief washed in over Katara when she heard Mai's smoky voice.

"What's going on?" Mai whispered weakly.

"Mai! Are you ok? You fell on a lot of knives, and you're burning up, but I don't know what's wrong with you, so I can't –"

"Nothing's wrong with me," Mai murmured.

Katara stopped and stared angrily at her. "Don't be stubborn like that! I know you don't like me, but let me at least heal you!"

"I said: _there's nothing wrong with me!_" Mai hissed. She raised and broke through the water. "Would you please get _this_ away?" She hit through the water, her clothes drenched in water and blood.

Katara pulled back her water with an angry grimace. She gritted her teeth. "I just saved your life! You could show some gratitude!"

"I have nothing to be grateful for!" Mai shouted, turning towards with burning eyes. When she looked down on her that way, Katara really felt intimidated. "You should just have let me be! Isn't that what you really wanted? Damn you and your moral!"

Katara watched in astonishment as Mai turned around and began walking away with firm steps, but only little time went by before she was panting again and had to stop and rest against the wall of the palace.

_Yes, damn my moral,_ Katara thought grudgingly as she got to her feet and hurried to Mai's side.

"Sit down, Mai, for Agni's sake!"

"You don't know a thing about Agni," Mai bit her off as she took the advice and found a bench to sit down on. She was panting and trying to even her breathing. Katara could see that she was feeling dizzy and really should be lying down.

"You're really sick, aren't you?" Katara murmured.

Mai smiled. "What if I die from this illness? Will you cheer me on as I'm carried to my deathbed?"

Katara knotted her hands. "That is an awful thing to say!"

"Yet a true thing."

Katara stared into Mai's eyes, and she knew it was true.

She stepped back, disgusted at what she was seeing in Mai's eyes.

How could she be so heartless? How could she actually cheer on for Mai's death, how could Mai's illness make part of her _happy_?!

"I'm … I'm sorry," Katara whispered and covered her eyes so that Mai couldn't see how ashamed she was.

"It's okay. I would probably be happy to have you gone, too," Mai responded.

Katara straightened from her slumped position and stared at the black-haired woman. She was about to say something, but she found herself speechless. There was nothing to say.

She slumped back against the wall. "So what's wrong with you?" she asked.

"Pregnancy, I guess," Mai answered without a flicker of emotion.

Katara froze for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to do with this information. "Pregnancy doesn't burn you up," she ended up saying.

Mai smiled wryly. "When you're pregnant with a fire bender it does."

Katara gasped. Was this true? What was it Mai was saying? That she was carrying a fire bender? Was it true?

"Is Zuko happy?" she whispered, already knowing the answer, but she had to hear it.

"I haven't told him," Mai responded.

Katara's frozen façade broke.

"What?" she gasped. "You haven't told him?"

"No," Mai answered.

"How can you not tell him, you manipulative … You!" Katara burst out. "Are you playing some kind of game? Zuko is probably worried sick about this strange illness of yours –

"I wasn't feeling very bad yesterday. He's not worried at all. He thinks it was a flu," Mai cut her off, not responding to any of the offensive words.

"And I'm sure you told him all about our fight yesterday, making me the bad guy!"

"We didn't talk about it," Mai told her. "None of us felt like being in particularly serious mode." She smiled at her.

Katara raised her hand to hit her, but Mai caught the hand before it even got near.

They stared at each other, Katara furious, Mai deadpan and angry.

Then Katara pulled her arm back, turning away.

"When did things become such a mess?" she murmured.

"When you married Zuko," Mai answered surely, and when Katara opened her mouth to speak against this, she stopped herself, knowing that Mai was right.

Mai got to her feet and walked towards the door that led into the palace. Her steps were dragging, and Katara looked after her with concern. What was this strange pregnancy? Would Mai die?

Katara shuddered and shook her head. She hurried the opposite way of Mai, thinking of another way into the palace. She didn't want to walk side by side with Mai.

-

Katara was sitting on her balcony, staring down into the garden. Her mind was wandering, and she imagined standing down there, looking at Mai practice, seeing her fall … and walking away.

Time was closing in. There were only so little left. Mai was having a fire bender, Zuko didn't know, and Katara apparently didn't have any of the symptoms. She wasn't having heatstroke or fainting spontaneously. She'd spoken with one of the Fire Nation doctors, and she'd said that most women carrying fire benders didn't feel much during the pregnancy, if not nothing, so she could still be carrying a fire bender.

But if Mai was having trouble already this early … It had to be a really strong fire bender.

Katara closed her eyes, feeling tears press against her lids.

But Mai had said that there was nothing to be grateful for. What was she thinking? She was so close to becoming First Wife that it wasn't even funny.

Why were her eyes saying that she wasn't happy at all?

Was there still time?

-

Did Katara still have a chance?

-

This was a fun chapter to write – or exciting, you choose. I tried to make a lot of mood images, and I hope I did that all right. I hope you weren't too worried about Mai there ;)

But yea, she is in a pretty bad condition. :( Poor Mai.


	13. In agony Mai pov

Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews :) You can make as many of them as you want ^^

Enjoy :D

-

Chapter 12

In agony

Mai pov.

The burning was turning her body to ashes as it spread throughout her limps from her stomach. Her breathing was uneven, and she was grabbing the end of the bed with as much force as she had in her, fighting the pain with stubbornness as her weapon. Against this enemy, no shuriken or knife could help.

Fear crawled up her spine as it became almost impossible to breathe, and the pain created moisture in her eyes that she refused to shed.

The loud moan that escaped her lips only vaguely sounded in her mind as she fell down onto the floor. She felt a sob break through her body, and the thought that she might not be found before it was too late caught her attention, but it soon disappeared again, as the feeling of someone closing their hands around her throat began. It was a usual part of this, she had observed, and as her capability to breathe was taken away from her, and as the pressure on her throat continued, her body shook and her stomach emptied itself before she could stop it. She was glad, though. She could breathe again.

With her hands pressed against the now covered floor, she tried to raise herself, but the effort was lost, and she fell again, her head right into the vomit.

Three more sobs cheated on her lips, before she could stop herself, and she rolled a whole turn to her left, so that she was out of the vomit.

She never knew what she had to do in these situations. Nobody knew, Azula had told her. It was just something that women survived.

But how could she survive this kind of humiliation?

_I can endure it alone,_ she decided. _ I have been alone for so long. It's better if I'm alone about this, too_.

And that was exactly the thought that kept her from going to Zuko and tell what had happened, every time the urge rushed through her. She couldn't take it if he was disgusted with what she was going through. She couldn't take it if he thought she was weak.

She couldn't take it if he thought that _Katara_ could take it.

"What do you want?" she asked, and curled herself up into a ball. "What do you want from me? Say it, I'll do it."

There was no response.

The burning was ceasing a little. Maybe the baby had heard her, maybe not, but she was grateful anyway. All she could think about lately was the pain, when it would be coming, and when it would be leaving again. There was nothing else in her world now but pain.

She pulled herself together mentally, and forced herself to get up on her feet. Rushing to the bathroom to wash herself, she thought about whether to clean up herself, or to ask a servant to do it. A servant might tell Zuko.

She took off her clothes and got into the cold water. She didn't bathe in anything but cold lately. It helped a bit on the shock from the pain.

Deciding to just let it go and have a servant clean up, she took a leap into the water. It was so soothing to have the water around her. Since Katara came, she hadn't enjoyed a bathe, because she was always afraid that she might be killed while cleaning herself up, but after becoming pregnant, she had a hard time caring about that kind of thing. Getting killed would just mean the end of pain. That didn't sound too bad.

She smiled slightly as she floated around in the water. What a mother she was. Her instinct had to be totally off by this point. But it must be something in the family, since her own mother hadn't been exactly the dream-mother, either.

Her view on the world had changed. She never thought about the future anymore. Not really. She was only thinking if she would survive the day, and the pregnancy. If it was this bad now, how bad would it be when she got really pregnant, like Katara was now? What about birth?

Goose bumps spread across her body, and she duck into the water to shake it off.

But now that she thought about it …

What if she survived?

Until now, she really didn't have much hope of surviving. She knew that if it was bad this early, it would become worse later, and many a woman had died from this kind of pregnancy.

So she'd fantasized that Zuko would cry at her funeral, and that, to honor her memory, he would make her First Lady, and take her child as the heir, and Katara would forever be in misery. But the thought had occurred to her now.

What if she survived?

After all this pain and suffering, would she be able to love that child?

Yes, she was pretty sure that she would be able to do that. It was Zuko's child, and it was her child. She would fight for it, fight for it to get a proper position in the world. Fight for it to be happy. She would love it and cherish it. She would become the only truly dependable person in its world. In a life where it's father were preoccupied with other women than it's mother, that mother would become a greater part of its life than the father.

"But you're fine with that, right?" she whispered, placing her hand on her still flat stomach. "We can love each other, just us. We can get by." She smiled slightly. "With Ty Lee, too, of course." Her eyes lingered at the ceiling, watching patterns that she had never noticed before. "And one day you'll get married, and you'll get a family, and maybe I can get to be a part of that." She closed her eyes. "But if you become the Fire Lord, you must promise me …" A tear broke through her barrier, but she ignored it, playing that it was just water from the bassinet.

"Don't marry more than one."

She tried to breathe evenly, but it soon became an impossibility, and before she knew it, she was crying aloud, trying desperately to wash away the tears with the water. The room was echoing with her voice breaking in the middle of sobs again and again, and she wondered if no one was hearing it. Could nobody hear that she was crying? Did nobody know that she was so sad that her heart seemed lost behind the façade she build many years ago? Wasn't anybody aware that she was _dying_?

Snot was dripping from her nose and mixed with the tears. She was crying so hard now that there was hardly coming even a little sound. Trying to reach _someone_, she let out a scream.

Nothing happened.

She bowed forward, pressing her hands to her stomach, where a certain warmth was spreading. She was numb. She couldn't move. Her legs were shaking.

"Help," she whispered.

Her face broke through the surface, and she thought it sounded like what a breaking mirror might give off.

It might have been seconds, maybe minutes, but at some point she hit the bottom of the bassinet. It had to be seconds, since she was still aware of what was happening.

The heatstroke was killing her. Ironically, her little fire bender was drowning her.

"No," she tried to say, but only bobbles came out of her mouth, and she shook her head in defiance, begging in her thoughts for the pain to stop so that she could move again. She was begging Agni to save her, to save her child.

And she wondered if it would be better, after all, if she had never gotten the child. If she lost it now …

_No!_ she screamed in her thoughts, thinking that Agni might have heard it. _Forget it! I didn't mean it! Save my child! Save it! Leave me be, just save it!_

Her ears were ringing from continuously shaking her head, and trying once more to call for help, her lungs were filled with water, and everything went black.

-

A big shadow was standing in front of her. She wasn't quite sure of the shape, but it was very near. She reached out for it, and a strange warmth cradled her heart. She was just about to step closer to it, as it moved towards and shaped around her. A cry sounded in her ears as the shadow laid itself as a belt around her waist. It was trying to communicate with her, but she couldn't understand.

"What?" she asked.

The cry grew louder, deeper, and she made it out to be the sound of a man.

"What are you saying?"

"Mai!"

"Yes?"

"Wake up, Mai."

"Wake up?" Wasn't she already awake?

The shadow disappeared, and she realized that she was lying down, covered by some sort of soft material. Strong arms were wrapped around her, and she blinked a few times, as if she wasn't quite sure how to do it. She stared in to the eyes of Ty Lee, and surprise and disappointment made her make a little jump backwards.

She felt the breathing of someone behind her, and she looked up in sort of a daze. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Zuko's eyes looking back into hers.

"Mai! You're alive! You're all right!" he exclaimed, and his arms crushed her in a warm embrace. He hugged her tightly to his chest, putting his head between her neck and shoulder. He was shaking, and after wondering about it a bit, she found out that he was crying.

"We were so worried!" Ty Lee cried.

"You too, Ty Lee? When did this turn into an exaggeratedly tragic theater play?" Mai asked bitingly, but Zuko just shook her a bit, as if he was trying to wake her up.

"I was so close to losing you, Mai!" he whispered in her ear, so low that she thought nobody else could hear. "Leave us alone!" he then said in a louder tone, and Mai tried to see who else was in the room, even though it was hard with the way Zuko was holding her.

Toph was standing by the door, Azula leaned against the wall, her face in a strange expression that Mai didn't even get in to interpreting, and then Ty Lee right behind her. Everyone but Katara was there.

They left without saying any more, and Zuko didn't say anything a while after they had left, either. He just held her as if they were never going to hold each other again.

"Are you cold?" he finally asked, and he rubbed the blanket, that she was apparently wearing, tighter around her.

She shrugged. "I'm fine," she retorted.

He sighed. "You should have told me. If I had known it wasn't just a cold … Thank Agni I was on my way to see how you were doing …" He smiled sadly and traced her lip with his index finger. "I was so scared. The thought of losing you …" His voice disappeared, and he shook his head.

Tears filled Mai's eyes anew, and she thought that she had cried more than in her entire lifetime within twenty-four hours.

With as much force as she could command, she put her arms around him and hugged herself to his chest, thankful for his words.

"Mai … Are you … crying? Are you in shock? Do you want me to call a doctor?" She could hear that he was seriously worried, so she just shook her head.

"No," she responded. "Must be the pregnancy."

He frowned and looked down at her with soft eyes. "You're so pale. And cold. When I got you out of the water, you were as hot as a volcano might be, but a few seconds after we'd covered you with the blanket and begun trying to save you, you turned cold as ice. I was scared." He looked away, blushing a bit, apparently embarrassed to be admitting these things.

"I'm glad you saved us," she murmured. "I was scared."

He ran his hand through her damp hair. "Us?" he asked.

"The child," she murmured, and then a yawn demanded it's attention.

Zuko wrapped his arms under her back and legs and lifted her up as if she weighed nothing.

"The servants cleaned your room. You can sleep there," he told her.

Already half asleep she moved her hand to his shirt, and she grabbed it in a loose grasp. "Will you stay?" she whispered.

He brushed her hair back.

"Of course," he answered.

Then she fell asleep.

-

For the first time in so long that she couldn't remember the last time Mai woke up with a happy feeling. Surrounded by covers and pillows she remembered Zuko's arms around her, and the words that he'd whispered in her ears. He loved her. She didn't doubt that now, and she would never doubt it again.

A smile spread across her lips, and a tickling feeling ran across her bottom lip. She opened her eyes and stared into Zuko's eyes. He smiled back at her, and before she knew it, she was cradled against his bare chest with his lips pressed against her ear.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked.

"Mmmh," she responded.

"Nice dreams?"

"I don't think I had a dream," she answered. "If I did, I can't remember it."

"Oh," he murmured. She could hear that he'd been hoping for a particular answer, but Zuko was bad at explaining himself, so she didn't ask into it.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked. "Any nice dreams?"

"I was up most of the night," he answered.

"Don't you have meetings today?"

"I do."

"Then that was a bad idea," she stated.

"Well, sorry for being a bit worried that you might have a relapse," he pouted.

She smiled. "That's okay." She ran her fingers up and down his chest, admiring the texture and muscles.

In return she felt his hands on her body, running up and down her back, and each touch brought on a wave of goose bumps.

He gently pressed her against the madras and moved on top of her. Her head was swirling as she felt his lips everywhere on her body. A tremble snuck its way through her nerve system as he found his way in to her.

-

He'd told her to stop training. It seemed that every time she tried to practice, it brought on the heat strokes, so Zuko had told everyone on the palace that she was forbidden from training. Mai felt like a precious object made of glass being wrapped in folio so that nothing could happen to it. But she didn't mind when it was Zuko wrapping her.

So instead of training, she spend her time reading in the garden or drawing or writing. Sometimes she just stared into the thin air, thinking.

She still went to the training grounds to see people train. Besides, Ty Lee was with her constantly, and she needed to train, too – even if Ty Lee could train anywhere. Then Mai helped her set up dummies that she would kick down.

Sometimes Katara's almost-sister-in-law came by, but they didn't talk. Mai figured Katara had told Suki everything, and that Suki hated her just as bitterly as Katara did.

Very rarely, Sokka, Katara's brother, would come train, too. He was strange, Mai decided. He wasn't like any other warrior Mai had ever seen. The way he used his sword, and the way he used his mind … She'd heard he was trained by the legendary Piandao. Sometimes she found herself envying him the life he'd had. It seemed as though he went on so many adventures, and she'd never been on any. She'd like to hear his whole story, she'd like to know of the world outside. But that was not her place. She was pregnant, and the world outside didn't matter at the moment.

Sometimes, when Mai was just sitting in the garden, she would catch a glimpse of Katara, wandering around on the upper levels of the palace. Once they'd had eye contact, and Mai had seen so much in those blue eyes that it had been hard to bear. Katara's eyes seemed so lost, like she had been only just a few days before. It seemed she felt abandoned, and Mai remembered that Katara hadn't had any symptoms of bearing a fire bender. Or a bender at all.

Because it was so confusing, Mai ignored her thoughts on Katara most of the time. It was simply too complicated, and she didn't want to become stressed and trigger the pain.

Sometimes the pain would come, though. Then Ty Lee helped her, and they went back to Mai's room as fast as possible. Mostly Zuko would come a little while after, but sometimes meetings would hold him back, and he wasn't told until after the heatstroke was over.

Zuko was happy, even though he, of course, was sad that she was in pain. Mai, his second wife, and the first woman he'd loved this way, was finally pregnant, after all that time, and on the top, she was carrying a fire bender. He was happy, and that made Mai happy. Even though it was early, he spoke to her stomach already, telling their little fire bender not to hurt her and just to sleep until the time came to come out.

Mai spoke to their fire bender, too. She used at least half an hour every day, speaking with her unborn child. It soothed her, as if she could somehow prevent the pain if she spoke with the child.

But despite the efforts, the pain was progressing and would soon become harder to bear.

Somewhere, in the back of her head, Mai was afraid.

Afraid that she wouldn't survive giving birth to her own child.

--

Omg, this chapter was so emotional and exciting to write! For some reason I love writing scenes involving pain …

I feel so sorry for Mai! The things she must be feeling … I'm really trying to make her character and her thoughts realistic, trying to make people relate to what she's going through. It's hard, of course, since no one's ever been pregnant with a fire bender, but you get my drift, don't you?

I'm excessively happy with the last two chapters. It's like my writing has become better, and that's always a good thing.

Oooh, and I'm _really_ looking forward to telling Sokka's story! He's so awesome ^^

Well, that was chapter 12. Eight more chapters till the epilogue :D


	14. The forgotten dream Katara pov

I won't say anything for this chapter, except that I'm proud of the last part and feel a great emotional connection to it.

Enjoy.

-

Chapter 13

The forgotten dream

Katara pov.

They were moving at a rational speed, nothing putting too much pressure on a pregnant woman – a pregnant woman, who was deadly sick because of the firebender growing inside her.

She looked paler than usually, and she would suddenly faint out of nowhere. Sometimes she'd spontaneously fall to the ground in screams, holding her hands to her stomach or throat. It wasn't something that happened every day, but maybe once a week. But at some point she would be so sick, that she couldn't leave her room anymore.

Zuko seemed to be thinking the same. He raised his hand towards Mai, holding a red fire lilly.

Katara flipped the curtain so it cut off her view.

"Easy there, princess," Toph said.

Katara turned towards her with burning eyes. Even if the blind girl couldn't see her frustration, it was one way to get it out.

"Why are you so uptight, anyway?"

Katara shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."

With a snort Toph hammered her foot in the floor, making a stool made of stone to appear out of the floor, forcing Katara to sit down.

"Try me."

Katara pouted, fiddled with her hands, meddled with her hair, smoothed out her skirt.

"He's forgotten me," she murmured.

"Who? Wonderboy? Naah, he's just doing what's right," Toph said.

"_Doing what's right?_" Katara exclaimed. "Forgetting your pregnant wife is right?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Toph tried to correct calmly.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't be as open-minded and indulgent as you are, but –"

"Zuko is afraid Mai might die. Doesn't it make sense for him to spent time with her?"

It was like Toph had planted a fit in the middle of Katara's face. She felt numbed by the words.

When Katara first became pregnant, Zuko pretty much forgot all about everyone else and concentrated about her. She'd felt important and loved. Now he was doing the same thing towards Mai. Mai had to be feeling the same way as Katara had.

Was Katara feeling the same way as Mai had before?

She shook her head ran her hand through her curly hair, thinking about the situation from as many aspects as she could, which didn't go very well. Love was irrational, and it made on incapable of seeing other sides than one's own.

"Can Mai really die?" Katara asked.

"I trained with her a little while ago, and her heart was acting really strange. If she puts too much pressure on her body, I think she could die even before she gets to the point in her pregnancy that you are at now."

Katara shuddered. To think that Mai didn't have much time left … To think that she'd soon be gone … It was weird, and it was creepy. She couldn't be happy about it, even if it meant that she would get Zuko for herself. It was wrong that things was going this way.

"Poor Zuko," she murmured.

"Poor Zuko?" Toph asked. "I'd rather say 'poor _Mai_'!"

Katara shrugged and looked away.

She didn't have much to pity that woman.

-

"And then he said that if she was sane, then he'd eat five bowls of fire flakes without drinking nanything afterwards," Sokka finished, cracking up, holding his stomach, and trying to hold back hysterics.

Katara and Suki both looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"I still don't get your humor," Katara finally concluded. She shook her head.

Suki sighed in relief and grabbed Katara's arm. "I'm so glad that I'm not alone any more. I get to relax from that airhead."

"Hey!" Sokka shouted, jumping in front of them. "Don't insult me when I'm right there!"

"Fine," Suki agreed. "Then go talk with Aang or Zuko or someone like that."

Her suggestion made Katara laugh.

"Oh, so _that's_ funny?" Sokka asked. "Women! No humor at all!"

With an extremely characteristically angry face, he marched towards the palace.

As Katara and Suki walked, those near to them stopped to bow before they continued their doings.

"How do you live with it?" Suki asked. "How can you become used to people bowing for you and speaking to you like you're the goddess of the world?"

"I don't go out much," Katara responded.

"Ah," Suki giggled. She smiled a sad smile. "But it must be hard for you. After everything that happened … Are you okay with just being a wife and nothing more?"

Katara blushed and corrected the way her dress was folding.

"I know what you must be thinking, but I chose this," she said.

"You didn't choose it knowing what it would be like. He has _three_ other wives, Katara!" Suki hissed, trying hard to say it in a way so no one would hear it.

"I'll just have to deal with that," Katara responded.

"You always wanted so much more, Katara. What if you don't become the First Wife? What will you have lived for?"

Katara felt a headache coming on, and she put her hand to the hurting forehead.

Suki was a warrior. She got to be on the front line with the other Kyoshi warriors. She got to follow Sokka around.

She couldn't understand. Never.

"I don't think you can ever be happy before you fulfill what you began," Suki continued.

"I didn't begin _anything_," Katara growled, feeling that she had to say something. "I _wanted_ to begin, but –"

"Zuko got in the way."

Katara scowled at her.

"Do you think you would have been happier if you hadn't given him your heart? If you hadn't become his wife and instead chased your dream?" Suki asked.

"No," Katara responded bluntly. "I don't. That dream was unrealistic."

"Not if you'd followed it with your heart."

"Suki, I made a choice. I'm living with it. Leave it be."

Suki blushed and lowered her eyes with a nod. "Let's go back to the palace," she murmured.

Katara didn't respond. She simply dragged Suki on with her in the same steps that Sokka had taken.

The people around them were honorable and all bowed as they moved by. Their clothes were beautiful, and Katara wondered what it was like being them, having the merits of being nobility, but lacking the power and duty of being royalty.

The big, ornamented gate closed behind them with a loud_ bump_, and Katara felt her body shake a little at the shock. She shook her head at herself. She really needed to go out more.

"Can we have dinner together tonight?" she asked Suki.

"Of course! Even if I have to force him to eat the food here." Suki rolled her eyes, and Katara chuckled.

Then Katara spotted Azula and Ty Lee on their way towards the gate, talking about something seemingly serious.

"Where are you going?"

Katara couldn't help asking.

Ty Lee's head snapped up, like she was afraid Katara might have heard something.

Azula slowly raised her eyes, smiling viciously.

They passed without saying anything.

After the gate had closed, Suki shuddered.

"She's really terrifying," she whispered.

"You sort of get used to it," Katara promised.

"I just hope I'm not around enough to get to that point," Suki declared.

Katara got her point.

-

The dress was soft and felt almost like water in her hands. Silk always made it tingle inside her, made her feel strangely at home, even if they never wore this kind of clothes at home.

It was another one of Sokka's gifts. It was from the Earth Kingdom, but he had gotten it made in blue with a turquoise belt.

She looked at it with sad eyes and wondered when she'd get to take it on. Sokka hadn't thought about the fact that she was pregnant, and that she couldn't wear it yet. The few dressed he'd given her, that she could wear already, were those Suki had taken care of.

She sighed yet again and left it lying on her bed, like a sad memorial of a different time and place.

She remembered what Suki had said on their walk earlier. Had Katara changed since she had not felt the same way when Suki mentioned her dream? She didn't have that old fire flaming up with the very mentioning. She didn't start planning how to get to work right away. She simply thought about her life with Zuko, which was, all things considered, very quietly. Even if she was in the middle of the war, knowing everything that was going on … She was outside. She wasn't one of the warriors. She wasn't Azula. She wasn't her brother. She was Katara. A Katara that had changed. A Katara without the old dream that made her fight for what she believed in.

She walked out to her bathroom and looked into the huge mirror that took up an entire wall for itself.

She looked into the mirror, looked at the bulging stomach that was growing second by second.

Yes. She had changed.

She put her hand on the bulge and closed her eyes.

That dream of hers had meant everything. Ever since she was little … Even if things had been different in the southern tribe …

It was still the same. Basically.

"I'm still the same," she realized then, and she let her hand drop. "I'm still a prisoner."

She hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. The cold floor hit her, but she only noticed because she broke into pieces. She was an ice crystal, breaking into thousands tiny diamonds. A broken façade that could never become whole again.

Zuko didn't come and put the pieces back up together.

And how should he have been able to?

He wasn't a water bender.

-

The wind was traveling south, for a change. All the flowers and straws of grass, all the leafs on the trees and all the little branches, they all turned that way.

Feeling her hair moving with them, like in a muted symphony, a dance with no music. The begging of this song, a screaming desire with no form, reached her heart with an aching pain, and she reached up on her head, towards the diadem that she always wore. She released the knob on top of her head, letting only the two traditional hair lopes from the Water Tribe stay in place. They weren't even lopes anymore … They were merely two tendrils, held by the two pearls that should be blue … But she'd changed them to red. For Zuko. To fit in. For the Fire Nation.

Somewhere down there … In the garden. Some garden … They were walking together, probably laughing while he put his hand on her stomach, just like he'd done with her.

Her hair was dancing so wildly with the wind, that her vision was blocked.

She didn't belong here. She belonged in the South Pole. Suki was right. What had she become? A wife? She knew she could more than that. Her childhood on the South Pole … All the women … Her skills, her ambitions, her _dream_! It was all there. Not here, not in this warm place that seemed so cold to her heart. It wasn't right. They didn't accept her here. She'd seen how they looked at her.

"My dream," she mumbled, moving into a daze by the hypnotizing movement of her hair. Upwards. South.

Her hands. Her feet. Her body.

Her eyes.

The sky was so blue, the sea was calling, the ice was so cold, the snow was so white.

The grass was so green.

A terrified scream reached her.

"_Katara_!"


	15. Uprooted Mai pov

I'm on DeviantArt :D Yay! I'm so happy to be there xD If anybody wanna check me out, my name is Lythya, just as it is anywhere else, like youtube.

And now, to the announcement xD At some point, I'm going to make a trailer-thingy with this story, because I really keep getting ideas for trailers. I'll say here whenever they're on my youtube profile, but just so that you know ^^

Sorry I have been a while on updating . The last chapter ended terribly cliffy! I honestly meant to write the next chapter right away, but things got in the way, and the wait got longer than usually. So for that, I'm sorry.

And now, for what is probably the longest chapter in this story, yet!

Read, enjoy and review :)

-

Chapter 14

Uprooted

Mai pov.

The inner side of the flower's petals was swelling with fresh dew, which flooded down her pale hand when she touched it.

She watched it carefully, as all of it gathered in the middle of her palm, and she cupped it so it couldn't escape, and she pressed her fingers together to eliminate the holes.

While raising her hands, she carefully glimpsed under her hand. Not a single drop was let out.

A miniature waterfall washed over her face, and she lowered her now empty hands.

"Mai!" Zuko said, grabbing her hands. "Don't do that. You'll get sick."

He swept his sleeve over her forehead and worked his way to her throat. Her skin dried underneath his careful touch, and she sighed resentfully. Why was he watching over her like she was a little child?

"Look at me, Zuko," she snapped. "I can't possibly get much sicker than this." She gestured towards herself.

They both knew she was wrong, but they didn't speak about it. It was a taboo.

"Don't you have a meeting to attend?" she murmured.

"Half an hour," he answered.

"You should go get ready."

His golden eyes touched hers, but she didn't touch them back.

"I'll send Ty Lee," he promised, and her nod was all the answer he got.

"My lord!"

They both turned at the sound of a guard's hoarse voice, and Mai's glance rested upon Zuko as he froze. She remained silent, deadpan. Steady.

"It's an emergency at the Fire Ladies' residence!" the guard said in a too high voice.

Mai didn't react.

"What happened?" Zuko asked in a professional voice, as if he was used to this kind of situation. Mai felt approval fill her heart, but she ignored it. That was just her mother speaking.

"One of the Ladies fell from a balcony."

Mai's eyes lingered on Zuko as though this was the last time they would ever get to savor his face again.

-

Katara lay in her bed, surrounded by healers, nurses and doctors, her position constantly changing, pillows were, without a rest, laid in different ways behind her back, making the lower part of her body lie higher than her head.

She looked like she wasn't really there, which made sense, since it seemed that she was getting quite an amount of drugs to stimulate the pain she was in.

Zuko left Mai standing with the other wives and Ty Lee, while he moved further into the room, to Katara's side.

It surprised Mai to also find the Avatar in the room, and she wondered what he had to do with all of this.

"What happened?" Zuko asked. "_What happened_?"

His voice cut through her mind and got to the very essence of her illusion.

Mai's newly build walls broke.

She'd filled herself with lies. She'd told herself that he only loved her, that the only thing he cared about was her survival, and nothing else. Maybe he had, for just a short time. But now he was only concentrating on Katara.

A lump formed in her throat, making it ache in her whole body.

"She's going to be all right," Aang said. "I had her under custody right away. The drugs are just in case."

Zuko scowled at him. "What happened?" he repeated.

Aang's usually cheerful eyes looked at him with a suddenly serious edge. "Come. We need to talk somewhere else."

Zuko didn't ask questions. He followed right away with firm steps, and Mai knew that she had to hear what the Avatar had to say, too, in the moment he passed her. It was like an epiphany, given from Agni himself.

The sprinting inside her chest was ripping her in pieces, each beat tearing a nice memory apart, but she somehow managed to steer them in the right direction.

She had only been on sea a very few times, but she felt seasick none the less, as she swayed down the hall, following in the Avatar and the Fire Lord's steps. She ignored Ty Lee's worried gaze, prickling her back, and hoped that no one would feel the need to tell anyone about where she was.

An inroad into the wall, covered by a curtain, was enough to serve as her hiding place, and she rolled the textile away with soft movements from her fingers, and then she peeked out with her serious, rosa eyes.

"What is it, Aang?" Zuko asked. "What happened?"

"Everybody thinks she fell," Aang said.

"Well, she was standing on a balcony, so I guess that would make somewhat sense," Zuko snorted.

"She didn't fall."

Silence. Dreaded, murderous silence.

"Rebels?" Zuko asked.

"She jumped, Zuko, she jumped!"

Another piece of silence that might as well have been a thunderstorm. It seemed that way to Mai's ears.

"Katara would never do such an idiotic thing!" Zuko stated coldly. "I don't know what ideas might have formed in your head, but Katara did _not_ jump!"

"I saw her on the handrail, Zuko! I'm not making this up!" The Avatar seemed angry, and the voice that Mai had found seriously too happy was now dripping with a dark mood. Mai liked it better when he was happy. The Avatar in this temper seemed like a bad idea.

She but her hand on her stomach. It was making strange things to the rest of her body, but not the way the child did, so she figured it wasn't the pregnancy.

It was a big, gaping hole. Nothing. And it was consuming her. From the inside.

It hurt, but not physically. Mentally.

He was disappearing. In her mind, he was turning, slowly, and then he glided away, out from her life.

Her hands held on the curtain too tightly. It might give in soon.

"Katara is pregnant! To do that to her child would be –"

"She's obviously confused, Zuko!" Aang burst out. "You've been paying so much attention to Mai lately, and none to her. Of course she's sad, and of course she wonders whether you love her anymore, especially since she is – thanks for mentioning it – also pregnant!"

"Did she tell you this?" Zuko asked. Mai couldn't see his face properly, but she didn't need to. She knew what face he had. The defeated one, but it was still angry, still trying to hold on to denial. But his grasp was slipping.

The anger was running away, giving room for worry.

"No, I can tell," Aang responded calmly.

"I don't know what's going to happen with Mai, you know," Zuko said in a whispery voice that Mai had never heard before. It sounded very little. Fragile. "She's sick."

"You have to attend to both of your wives. That's the responsible that comes with marrying more than once." Aang clapped Zuko's shoulder friendly. Mai was peeking out a little too much. Her face was free now, and she was almost fully visible.

"What are you doing?"

The voice took her off guard, and she turned around swiftly, staring into a pair of sparkling, blue eyes. She'd never seen so clear eyes.

But she also didn't have time to think about that now.

She grabbed his arm with her one hand, and covered his mouth with the other, and then she stepped a little bit forward, so she could push him into the wall and flip the curtain around them so that they were covered from the visions of others.

He seemed to have received the message as she tried to look backwards, desperate to see Zuko and Aang passing by, talking about the subject of Katara's drugs now, because he didn't struggle to squirm free of her grasp.

When the Avatar and the Fire Lord had passed, Mai let out a breath of relief, and then she let go of him, stepping back. She pulled the curtain away and tried to get her hair back into order.

"What just happened?"

His somewhat shrill – shrill for a man, at least – voice questioned her sanity, but Mai just smoothed out the newly created folds in her dress. She was just about to leave without responding, but unfortunately, he did not agree with this plan that Mai found utterly superb.

"Why were we hiding?"

She looked coldly at him.

"That's none of your business," she told him.

He shook his head. "Unbelievable! What were you doing out here listening to them, anyway?" His eyes narrowed. "You're just as creepy as my sister said you were."

She gritted her teeth behind her lips, and her jaw set in a hard line. She pulled her arm back with an unfriendly move.

"I _said_: that's none of your business!"

Quiet, calm steps brought her down the hallway as she left Sokka behind, trying hard not to worry about what he might tell Zuko.

-

Mai and Ty Lee were friends by default. They were brought together as kids, facing the task of befriending Azula. Both of them spending so much time together, both with Azula and on the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, they automatically became friends.

Mai was not slow at recognizing the fact, that Ty Lee was Azula's toy, and that Azula rather enjoyed dominating Ty Lee in the way she did.

The same thing did not go for Mai.

Azula knew that Mai was not under her will, but this was also what gave her Mai's loyalty. Mai, having never felt especially attached to anything, was encouraged by the way Azula treated her: with respect, yet a harsh manner, that she had not met yet.

So Azula therefore became the first person to gain Mai's respect.

The second was Prince Zuko, whom she found very interesting from the moment she saw him, not entirely sure of how to explain these strange feelings that boiled up in her, every time he showed up anywhere near her.

This resulted in a strange mix of ignoring and collapsing with him, and red cheeks became the foundation of their relationship.

Azula and Ty Lee noticed the obvious crush, that she had on him, and they were not slow at coming up with ways to tease her with it. Mai found this exceedingly childish, but then again: it gave her an excuse to be near Zuko.

Ty Lee was always fond of Azula and her abilities. The constant pressure to keep Ty Lee's admiration was a challenge Azula took on happily, progressing a great deal because of it. Mai wasn't much interested in the fire. She found so much more significance in the pointy knives, that she'd seen in the Royal Fire Academy for Girls.

Mai and Ty Lee, being with a bender constantly, felt that they had to develop some kind of skill, too. This was when the two girls stopped being friends because of the time they spent with Azula, but because of their genuine care for each other.

It began when they began practicing their martial arts. Ty Lee was a very gymnastic girl, and the choice came easily to her. The only question was what kind of fighting style she wanted.

Until she found out about a style called Kyoshi Jitsu. It was about blocking the pressure points in the human body, and Ty Lee was all for it. It took a lot of flexibility, and her teacher praised her hard work a lot.

Mai had a different story. She was certain of what she wanted from the very beginning: she wanted knives. And lots of them.

But the teacher she had been supplied with – with much opposition from her parents – didn't seem to understand what she was requesting. Mai did not want the big, clumsy knives, no, she wanted small, elegant knives.

Mai, feeling only respect towards a very small number of people, not even including Ty Lee, lost faith in her tutor, and she went solo. The decision to teach herself was firmly set in her mind. And she did it.

She spoke with Azula about getting a special type of knives made, and Azula ordered it right away, feeling that helping Mai would not only be a friendly gesture, it might come handy in the future.

Mai helped design her own knives at a very early age. She got cases for them on her wrists and angles, and she found ways to cover her entire body with knives of different sizes and shapes. She soon also learned a new way to use arrows: if thrown with the right technique, she could fight with them as well as if she had a bow, yet, she found out, it was better to stay on a short distance basis with those types.

Even though she did not get much attention from her parents, she felt a burning passion towards the knives, a passion she had not felt before. The knives were quiet, only saying a sound when it was needed, they were sharp and to the point. She saw herself in the knives. That was why each of her knives became a special part of her, and she started not only wearing them to practice, but also in regular, just to feel more like the person she wanted to be, like the person she actually was. In a way, it might have been to fit in, but she soon understood, that the knives in no way contributed to her fitting in anywhere.

Which was fine with her. Azula and Ty Lee were enough for her.

But they were not enough for her parents. And maybe not for herself, either, actually.

Her parents might be oblivious to the deepest places in her soul, but they were not slow at observing the connection that could be between their daughter and the prince. They actually had a mean eye towards Ty Lee, at one point, because they saw her as a candidate.

Yes, they wanted Mai to marry the prince.

Mai and her parents just didn't agree on which one of them.

Luten.

Yes, Luten was quite nice-looking, he was polite, and he was a bender and a warrior. He was studying to become a great Fire Lord one day, and he spent a great deal of time on the problem of the rebellious thoughts that were growing into battles and gangs.

Luten was going to become a great man, and a great Fire Lord.

But Mai couldn't picture herself with him. This had nothing to do with Luten being about seven years older than herself, no, it was just that, somehow, she had already found the one she wanted to be put beside, and this was the person that she was going to fight to get to.

Zuko was quiet and insecure, he was awkward, yet strong in his believes. He was hot-headed and had a strong character, and Mai could imagine no one more perfect to stand by her side.

And he could be hers. _Just_ hers.

If she married Luten, she could end up competing with several other women about him.

The Fire Nation had the tradition of the Fire Lord marrying several women, so that the possibility of a fire bender for the next heir had a greater chance of happening. The Fire Nation was the only nation putting a great deal of thought into this exact point: the other nations did not worry too much about their leaders being benders.

Fire Lord Iroh had married twice, but he had not been married with them at the same time. The first of his wives had been his cousin. It seemed to be normal for the Fire Lord to marry someone in his family, just to secure the political stance and the bonds of familiarity. Especially in these times, it seemed crucial.

It was always the plan for Iroh to marry at least one more woman, which he did, after his cousin died in an accident, Mai had heard. It wasn't very accepted, that the Fire Lord got children with the ones of his wives that shared the same blood as his, and even less accepted was it for the child to be the heir. It had happened one time in the history of the Fire Nation, and that only because the child was a ridiculously strong bender.

The mother died during the birth. The child had to be abducted from her body almost a month before she was due, simply because if they didn't, both the woman and the child would die.

The whole history of Fire Nation royalty had bothered Mai since she was a kid, since the thought of marrying Luten was placed in her mind, but Iroh's story gave her a sort of hope.

If Luten was to marry his cousin, it would be Azula. Mai could live with that. And Luten seemed much like his father, who had, after the death of his cousin, married a woman out of love. The people felt insecure about the Fire Lord only marrying one woman, feeling that it was risky. But things worked out.

Even though Mai could hope for that, it ached inside her. Because she felt that her heart belonged to Zuko, and, for some ridiculous reason, Mai felt that her heart shouldn't be forced toward someone else. It so rarely spoke up about something, so she thought that when it did, she needed to listen to it.

This led to Mai listening very much to her instincts. She went against her parent's will, and she engaged the adventure of getting to know Zuko.

She would spent hours, looking for him in the palace, and when she finally found him, she'd ignore him, trying to act normal. It was only through Azula's cruel games that she came into any real form of contact with him. This didn't mean she was thankful, though. Azula was still enjoying it all too much.

Mai didn't have too much time wandering about, looking for her childhood crush, though. She had training.

Mai had an extremely sharp mind. It worked in a fascinating way: she was perfect for the art she loved, because of her skill at being fixated on just one thing. She could bring herself into a cold state, in which she shot anything down. She always hit the right place.

But she felt that she had a flaw.

Her movements needed to have something to work with, she needed to be able to do more than standing still.

This was where Ty Lee came into the picture.

They made a deal: Mai would help Ty Lee concentrate better, and Ty Lee would help Mai with her movements.

Ty Lee helped Mai with jumping about in a way that reminded of the way Azula and Ty Lee used to, especially when they were small and spent all their time in the garden.

Mai hadn't practiced cart wheeling from she could walk, but she found her own way to make up for it.

Mai found different books and texts for Ty Lee, and she gave her tests in the books, so that she learned to observe everything, and then she got tasks of finding special places in the books, making her think about only one thing, separating this thing from all the rest. It ended up helping Ty Lee a lot. Or so she said.

Through this time of helping each other, Mai and Ty Lee began respecting and caring for each other, realizing how well they compensated for each other.

As they grew older, Ty Lee understood that Mai's crush on Zuko was developing into something more, and so did Azula. The two girls were not a minute ignorant of what had to be done.

And so, Mai and Zuko mysteriously started meeting everywhere, bumping into each other on the library, ending up walking the same way to and from places, somehow read the same books, all because of the secret pulling of strings by Azula and Ty Lee, which both Zuko and Mai knew nothing about.

Everything changed, though, when Luten died.

And Zuko was the next heir.

The heir to a title that required him to marry at least two wives.

Mai hadn't truly relaxed since that time.

-

Ty Lee had developed a sort of instinct that pulled her towards her two most important friends, whenever they were in need. This instinct also applied for Zuko from time to time, but it wasn't as certain a thing as with Mai and Azula.

This instinct was what led Ty Lee to Mai, just a few hours after she had overheard Zuko's and Aang's conversation.

Or maybe it wasn't instinct. Maybe it was obvious.

Mai had left right away, needing to be alone in her own chambers. She sat in her dining room with a book in her hands. It was a very special book to her, a book that both Zuko and she had enjoyed a great deal a few years back. She wondered whether Zuko remembered their talks about it and the symbolic of everything in it.

This was how Ty Lee found her. In a loose silk robe, her hair down, covering her face as she was leaned forward over a book, looking like someone who had lost everything. Or someone who was losing everything, like sand moving out between opened fingers. Or maybe even water.

"Did you know the Avatar offered Azula a job?" Ty Lee asked, trying to lighten the mood in the room.

"Is that so?" Mai murmured.

"Yea." Ty Lee scowled. "She's going to leave soon. Probably for the Earth Kingdom or some boring place like that."

"It's hard when they leave," Mai whispered. She felt the book slip from her hands, as if she was losing the grip around it, around everything.

She quickly swept up from the chair, grasping the book a little too hard. She put it down on the table, and then she began stumbling over to the balcony. She held up a hand on her left side, so that Ty Lee wouldn't see her face. She didn't feel like being with anyone. She didn't feel like talking with anyone. She just needed to stand by the banister and stare down into the garden. The garden with so many memories …

Defying what she had just thought, she said to Ty Lee: "Do you remember when you and Azula made Zuko and me fall into the water?" She pointed towards the part of the garden that was parted from where they could see. There was a little, pretty waterfall, and they'd used to play there as kids.

Ty Lee chuckled, almost dancing to her side. "You were so mad at us. You refused to speak for an entire week!" She grinned. "Or, you tried."

Mai rolled her eyes with a resigned sigh.

Ty Lee put a hand on her shoulder, well aware that putting it on Mai's hand would be received as too much of a gesture. Mai didn't want to be comforted in a way that _felt_ like being comforted. Ty Lee understood that all too well.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we went down to that place? The waterfall!" She made her voice cheery and upbeat, as if she'd just gotten the greatest idea in the world and was very excited about it. Very girly, actually, as Mai would have put it, had she been in the mood for it.

Mai watched as Ty Lee made skips around towards the door. "I'll make cartwheels, and you can sit under your shadowy tree and enjoy the none-sun!"

Mai decided that her mind might be a bit more preoccupied in the garden with Ty Lee, than if she was alone in her room.

-

Mai was offered a delightful opportunity with the foundation of the Yu Yan archers. She was at the age of fourteen, and her precise and deadly skills had not been overlooked by the generals, every day going to and from the Fire Lord's hall.

They'd seen her train, and several of them were interested to see her on the battlefield, helping with settling the rebellion that was starting. For that, they needed someone with the skill of fighting without killing. This was exactly what the Yu Yan archers was supposed to be able to, and Mai was offered a place among their ranks.

Zuko was fifteen at the time, and his cousin had just died, killing the hopes of Mai marrying him instantly. Mai's parents immediately had her turn towards Zuko, whom she was already starting to become more and more attached to, Azula and Ty Lee not being insignificant in this fact.

But Zuko now being the heir, things changed for Mai. Zuko would have to face the traditions, the traditions of marrying several times. And Mai felt simply the thought of sharing him was unbearable.

So maybe she was not supposed to have him.

Mai joined the Yu Yan archers, much to her parents displeasure. They knew, though, that a war hero could be just as much worth, too.

Mai was fourteen, and she was being trained for the army.

This was not a thought that bothered Mai particularly. She was instinctively clear on her skills, and she was certain of what she was capable of. Her training with the other young people, the Yu Yan archers to-be, only helped acknowledging these thoughts.

Mai gained respect from her fellow archers through her remarkable skills, though her social skills did not bring her much admiration. At first.

She stayed by herself in the beginning, but many enough admired her that they dared to befriend her. And Mai accepted. Her dark sarcasm won over many of the others, and she became the second in command very quickly.

The skills of the Yu Yan archers were not to be laid to waste. Mai rarely saw her old friends and family because of the intense training, which she enjoyed, since it took her mind off Zuko. But training was soon over, and the Yu Yan archers were called out for an actual mission.

Mai was very excited about leaving the training grounds and stepping into the real world. At this point, she was almost seventeen and was one of the most talented warriors in not only the Fire Nation, no, the whole world.

But without notice, Ty Lee gave her a short visit, talking about how Zuko was going to be the Fire Lord soon, that they were meant to be together, and that he was very worried.

"Between you and me, he's actually talking marriage, Mai," she'd told her.

Mai left anyway.

-

"I knew I'd find you two here."

Toph's voice sounded from almost right beside her. Mai didn't look up to confirm it. She felt as if all strength had been drained from her neck, and she was unable to move it in any direction, the same thing going for her eyes, which were just staring at her folded hands, resting in her lap.

"Hello, Toph," Ty Lee greeted her. "How are we today?"

"Same old, same old," Toph laughed.

"Mai, are you okay?"

Mai finally looked up, just to find Azula moving towards her. She was wearing her usual Fire Nation garments, and her hair was held up in a knob with the crown stuck in it, entitling her royalty. She was the only one of them who ever really wore it.

"I'm fine," Mai responded, looking away once more.

"You look tired."

"I'm resting."

Azula watched her for quite some time, her eyes having a strange effect on Mai. It wasn't that she felt intimidated, it just gave her a feeling of Azula being _right_, even though she hadn't said anything.

Azula changed position so that she was facing towards all three of them and said: "I'll be leaving with the Avatar soon." Her voice sounded smug. No doubt, she felt that she was more important than the rest of them, who just got to be wives. No doubt, Mai thought, she was right in feeling that way.

"It's so sad, Azula!" Ty Lee declared. "When will you be back?"

Azula smiled. "I don't know, Ty Lee." She brushed a bundle of hair away from her cheek. "I'm going to be a sort of … _ambassador_ for Zuzu. The Avatar wants to convince us that his way is the right way. Instead, he is the one who is going to be convinced."

Ty Lee clapped her hands together. "You're so confident! I'm sure you're going to succeed."

Azula took the flattering pretty well.

"I'm off to practice my fire bending." She turned towards Mai again. "Try not to strain yourself too much, Mai. I know it'll be hard."

Their eyes met, and despite how the words sounded, Mai saw real worry in Azula's eyes, and she nodded. There had always been a strange connection between her and Azula. Even though Azula could be frightening, they had always gotten along very well, even back when they were children.

As Azula left, something came to Mai's mind.

Azula was a powerful fire bender. Very powerful, in fact. A so-called prodigy.

So wouldn't the pregnancy with her have been much like what Mai was going through right now? Deadly and devastating?

But Ursa was alive, and that after having given birth to two powerful fire benders. Wouldn't she know something that could help?

It was worth trying, Mai decided.

-

Mai was a part of the Yu Yan Archers for a bit more than a year. She helped cleaning up in the outskirts of the nation, and since the elite squat had made its entrance, the activity of the rebels had gone down a great deal. It had been decided that the Yu Yan Archers were to be sent to the Earth Kingdom to help fight over there.

A month before this was to be put in action, Mai was on visit at home. It was a long time since she had seen her family and her brother, but it was not those she was eager to visit. It was Azula and Ty Lee. And the Fire Lord.

But things had changed, and Mai had heard of it. At the age of eighteen, Azula had married her newly crowned brother.

Mai had been home in only a few hours before a message arrived from the Fire Lord himself. She was to come to the Fire Hall immediately.

Her heart was hammering as though it tried to escape from her chest when she walked towards the Fire Hall. The guards let her in as soon as she showed the message with the Fire Lord's insignia, and inside there was no one. Not even the sound of the fire, that usually parted the throne from the rest of the room, was there. Nothing.

And then she felt his arms closing in around her from behind, surrounding her with a sweet, sweet scent. It brought with it the most selfish of requests.

"Marry me, Mai."

She gave iín.

A month later, the Yu Yang Archers left for the Earth Kingdom, one archer weaker.

-

Ursa was a very powerful woman. One of the most powerful ones in the entire nation. Before the tragedy with her husband, Ozai, she had been a noblewoman with much prestige within the higher ranks of society. She had formed many tight bonds between her own family and others, not only in the Fire Nation, but all around the world. It was her relationship with the Bei Fong Family that started the interest on the marriage of Zuko and Toph. It wasn't that Ursa had particularly wished for this, the Bei Fong Family simply proclaimed that any son of Ursa must be more than capable of taking properly care of their daughter.

Ursa was still powerful after the death of Ozai, and anyone would, even after many years, help her no matter the cost. She had helped many through the years, too, in various ways, and people in general was very fond of her. But after the death of Ozai, she became very secluded and stayed away from the crowd. She stayed with her family and concentrated on teaching Zuko and Azula in history and politics. She no longer trusted people she had not known for many years, and she was suspicious of any stranger, believing they might be a rebel. Ursa was, in fact, one of the minds behind the Yu Yan Archers, and she grew particularly fond of Mai, whom she had not only known for many years as her daughter's best friend, but who was also one of the greatest warriors. Mai's fight with the rebels was impressive to Ursa, and they formed a special bond, even before Zuko asked Mai to marry her.

The bond between Ursa and Mai had, up until that point, only been that of the relationship between a higher ranked and a lower ranked who were fond of each other. But Mai getting married to Zuko changed things, and their relationship began to grow.

They didn't get to be much together, though, since Ursa had moved to Ember Island after the rebels weren't as loud, and the most you heard of them was from the Earth Kingdom. She was tired and retired to rest and mourn on her own. She didn't come often to the Fire Palace. In fact, Mai had only seen her three times since leaving the Yu Yan Archers: at her wedding, at the wedding between Zuko and Katara, and the wedding between Zuko and Toph, at neither of the latter occasions having much time to speak with her.

But now Mai was going to take her time for a long visit with the retired princess, deep in her heart not only to get help regarding the fire bender growing inside of her. Zuko very much relied on Ursa's advice, and if Mai could, somehow, miraculously, get her to nudge Zuko in 'the right direction', maybe he would finally make a decision. The _right_ decision.

Mai had no doubt that both Zuko and Azula would try and stop her if she requested going on a trip to Ember Island. It was a bit of a trip across the water, and neither of them would be excited about her traveling in the condition she was in.

That was why she was sneaking out in the middle of the night. She had made arrangements for a ship, making sure that Zuko wouldn't get to know before many hours after that she had left the port.

The garden was smelling fantastically in the night. Mai was intrigued by how some flowers only bloomed at night, and she wondered why she had never walked there, beneath the glittering stars, before.

Moving at a somewhat quickly speed, she counted on reaching the port in about an hour or so. The big task was getting out of the palace without anyone but a few chosen ones knew that she was leaving.

"Azula was right!"

Mai froze in place. She had been so sure that no one was following her, yet Ty Lee had noticed. Of course. She'd probably figured something was wrong after Mai had been so silent in the afternoon.

"Ty Lee, go back," Mai said, only giving a slight glance backwards before she continued walking.

"So you're just going to leave without saying goodbye? Not even a letter?" Mai could hear that she was upset, and she was guessing that there were probably tears in the corners of her eyes by now. She tried to ignore the thought and stay cool.

"I thought it was only Zuko and Azula I would have to worry about. I didn't think you'd try to stop me, too."

"What?" She sounded really surprised, as if Mai had taken her aback. "How could you think I didn't care enough to stop you?"

"I didn't –"

"Don't go, Mai. Please." Her voice was so little and sad, that Mai had to turn around. Ty Lee was hiding her face in her hands, shaking like she was standing in a blizzard.

"Ty Lee," Mai mumbled and stepped forward to put an arm around her. "It's only for a little while."

"Liar!" she exclaimed. "Azula said this was going to happen!"

"What? How did she know?" Confusion swirled Mai's mind. If Azula had known, why wasn't she trying to stop her?

"She said that you wouldn't want Zuko to choose you because of the child," Ty Lee sobbed.

Ice shot through Mai.

"Ty Lee," she said, composed. "Zuko isn't paying attention to me. He's attending to Katara."

Ty Lee looked up at her deadpan expression, confused.

"What are you saying?"

"As much as Azula is right, I'm not leaving because of that. Zuko isn't even near making his decision yet. I'm not leaving because I'm angry. I'm leaving because I'm in danger."

"In danger?" Ty Lee asked. She dried her eyes with her sleeve, and her face took on a harsh expression. "Why?"

"The pregnancy," Mai responded quickly, realizing that she had worked Ty Lee up. Her friend raised an eyebrow. Mai sighed. "Ursa was pregnant with Azula, right?" Ty Lee nodded. "So her pregnancy must have been complicated, too. I'd like to talk with her."

Ty Lee's face immediately lit up, and she smiled. "So you're not leaving for good?"

Mai shook her head with a deadpan expression, but she was, in fact, a bit amused over Ty Lee.

"I'm coming with you!" she declared, and Mai raised both her eyebrows.

"Excuse me?"

"Something could happen," Ty Lee declared, putting her hand on Mai's arm. "Ten minutes, then I'll be back. Wait over there." She pointed towards a tree.

Mai scrutinized her face for a few seconds before she nodded and found her ways into the shadows of the tree. Then Ty Lee ran back towards the palace, and the thought that Ty Lee might tell someone occurred to Mai, but she decided to ignore it and trust her friend.

Twenty minutes later, Ty Lee came back with a little bag with her.

Mai got to her feet. "We have to hurry."

Ty Lee nodded seriously, and they hurried towards the port.

-

I hope you liked it :) There was a lot of history on Mai and the Fire Nation and stuff, just to explain some things. I think the idea of Mai as a Yu Yan Archer is very appealing. I hope to someday finish a picture of her in her Yu Yan costume :D

Please review :D

Lythya


	16. Something in the horizon Azula pov

I have had a few requests making this story M-rated. A lot of you guys seem intrigued by the whole Zuko-harem-thingy. I just want to know how many people feel this way, because if many of the readers really want that, then I can at least _try_ and make it M-rated – not saying that I will succeed. I've never written that kind of stuff (lemon) before …

So please tell me your thoughts upon this subject.

-

Chapter 15

Something in the horizon

Azula pov.

The weather was turning. The breeze was not as warm as it used to be, and it was stronger. It never got _really_ cold in the Fire Nation, except when storms were nearing. Even in the coldest part of the year it never got that chilly, so it was with resentful eyes that her eyes glared at the sky. Not that she deemed it worthy of her attention, but it _did_ threaten to adjourn her carefully planned program, which was not acceptable in the perfect world that Azula decisively called her own.

She snorted, looking to the shore. If a storm was coming, Mai wasn't going to come back home right this instance, which was really not a good thing. Especially since Zuko would be just as late as her, since he, idiotic as he was, had gone after her.

_The nation needs it's lord, Dumdum_, she thought with an annoyed expression. Her journey would be delayed, too, though, since the Avatar was her companion, this might not be certain. Having the power to control both wind and water, a storm might not be that big of a problem.

"Still," she muttered and leaned over the handrail, glaring towards the horizon. She knew that it was troublesome, but it had to be done. There was no way Mai would have stayed, and it was important that she didn't. Zuko needed to realize the importance of Mai, and then they could return merrily, too caught up in their business to think about anything else.

Though that was, of course, a long shot. There was that one obstacle that Azula had dealt with the last year, an obstacle that seemed as though it was to stay.

She pressed her lips together. No, she would find some way to get rid of her, this water peasant that was such a piquant weakness. Kingdoms had known to fall because of the Monarch's taste in women, but this was not going to be one of those times if Azula had anything to say.

_If only I had prevented this before it could even have happened_, she thought angrily. She had not thought her brother's taste so bad when they were at the South Pole, she had not even considered looking after him in the manner he had needed. Had she known what was going on, she had gotten rid of Katara before she could have done any more damage.

_Dumdum's a fool, to no one's surprise. I wonder why Mai married him_. She scowled. _Why did _I_ marry him_?

This was a question Azula liked to ask herself a lot, but she knew why. As the Fire Lady, only one person could harm her. As the Fire Lord's sister, the court could still get their fingers on her. It was Agni's luck that Luten had died and left the throne for Zuko. What their father had not been able to accomplish had lain before them.

She picked at her skirt and her hair knob. She didn't have time for these dull, repetitive thoughts. To accomplish anything, one could not look at the past but should instead incline him or herself to look upon the future. And then quench as much from it as possible.

"Lady Azula, do you wish the red or brown gown for tonight's dinner?" a maid asked her.

"The brown gown should do," Azula responded instantaneously. "I want the golden belt with the fire insignia, my diadem and the red petticoat. Then give me the little, patent leather shoes, black, and the silver hairnet."

"Yes, my lady," the maid responded with a deep bow.

Azula sighed and left the balcony to take the bath that could no longer be delayed if she wanted her hair to be dry and ready for the dinner.

She had no doubt that Toph Bei Fong could keep her mask during the dinner, but she wondered if Katara, her brother and his fiancé would do. She had no hopes for Katara, but Sokka seemed to have spent some time in the higher society and actually have learned how to act when present there.

_I shall miss Mai and Ty Lee while they are gone_, she thought as she lowered herself into the hot water. The bobbles covered her almost instantly, and she raised her hand to watch them fall from her perfect, creamy skin. She could vaguely see herself mirrored in the fragile surface, and a smile crossed her lips. Maybe it would not be so bad if Katara made a fool of herself. It might make the Avatar realize how unfitting she was as a Fire Lady and speak a word with her brother.

A sigh left her lips as she remembered her brother's stupidity when it came to that woman, and yet again she salvaged in the memories of before Katara was brought to the palace.

She poured her hands with soap and lifted her leg above the water and began running her fingers along the lines of her muscles, lubricating herself as she went.

Around her, incense sticks gave off a calming aroma that she gave herself away to. She hummed a little melody to herself, wondering about the evening. Zuko would not be there to stop her, so she could try and influence the Avatar without him interrupting. He was no good at it, anyway.

She exhaled deeply, her leg smashing through the water like a whip, and several drops found their way into her eye, which made her annoyingly rub her eye.

Her cheeks were coloring with anger, and she once more cursed these abominated rebels, crawling forth when least expected. When the four nations had been most vulnerable.

Because of the Avatar's disappearance.

"Tssh," she snorted and waved away a tendril. She wasn't able to keep the indifference and was soon scowling into the air.

It was the Avatar's fault that the world was on the verge of a dangerous war, and he didn't seem to be set on doing what was needed to stop it.

Thirty years earlier, ten years before the birth of Azula, the Avatar disappeared into the Spirit World. What had happened was unknown, and the Avatar apparently didn't feel like sharing the story.

Then, four years ago, the Avatar returned at the Northern Watertribe, returning to a world filled with tension, fear and upcoming revolutions.

The young Avatar, still not fully capable in all of the elements, had to take on the responsibility to regain balance in a world that was losing its grip.

"Maybe there's no way back," Azula mumbled incomprehensibly. "Maybe the only way to balance is really a revolution."

Her lips twitched wryly, beginning to shake as she tried to hold back laughter, but it seemed impossible, so she gave in, her entire body losing up. The room echoed with her shrill voice unril, finally, it seemed like her chest was free of duty, and she slid under the water in a soft move.

_A revolution, huh_? she thought with a smile. She took an arm stroke and swam across to the other side, feeling a kind of relief before she began rubbing her hair with shampoo.

-

The maid's fingers worked diligently through her hair, making ready for the last touch; the silver hairnet. Azula watched the work in the mirror, never letting the girl go with her eyes. She could feel the slender hands trembling, which met her approval. If she was feared, no one would dare disobey her.

"There, my lady," the girl announced, stepping back with a deep bow, as Azula stood to get a good look of herself. After having decided upon the decency of her mirror image, she let the maid leave.

Azula took a few moments to look at herself, turning and shifting to get every angle. In the end she grabbed a smaller mirror and held it behind her head so that she could see her hair from behind. She nodded to herself and put the mirror back on the table.

Her mom was definitely right; she did have beautiful hair.

She darted through the room and made her exit into the hallway, where Toph Bei Fong was waiting for her. To no one's surprise, Katara was not ready yet.

Azula skillfully pulled out a fan but then regretted; it was not hot enough to be using a fan.

"Is there a storm coming?" Toph asked politely.

"Yes," Azula responded, just as polite. "There is."

"Is it as bad as the one in spring?"

Azula shrugged, forgetting the needlessness of the movement in the presence of a blind girl.

"I wouldn't know."

"Really?" Toph mused, a smirk on her lips.

For some odd reason, Azula found her annoying, so she decided on a counterattack.

"If it does become as bad as the one in spring, though," she informed, "we may have to put you in the dungeon, just to make sure you don't accidentally get blown away."

"Are you hinting that, just because I'm blind, I can't find my way through the palace?"

Azula smiled. "No, it was merely a comment on your height, but your reason might do as well," she answered.

She was trying to hold back laughter when Toph's hands clenched and she turned her gaze away in what Azula would guess to be embarrassment.

Finally, the water peasant got herself out of her depressing chambers – how could anyone live in that tasteless color all day? She was having a bit trouble keeping her balance. The reason was explicit – her dress was obviously not chosen to hide her continuously growing stomach.

"Let's go," she said without looking at either of them, constantly keeping her eyes away from their attention, resulting in the exact opposite.

"Tell me, Katara," Azula noted as she took her place in front of the line. "Your eyes seem a bit odd, are you sick? They look so blank."

Katara snorted, apparently not inclined to respond.

_No matter_, Azula thought, _we'll see how she does at dinner_.

The room in which they were to dine was not far away, and they arrived only a few minutes later. They were comfortable and luxurious, everything pleasant that Azula had grown up with.

Inside the Avatar was already waiting together with Sokka and Suki. Azula made a short bow towards the Avatar, ignoring any such efforts towards the other two, who seemed to get all the needed attention from Katara.

"Avatar Aang," she greeted the man she was to accompany in the future.

"Lady Azula," he answered, bowing in response to her own respectable gesture. "Shall we sit?"

Yet another gracious gesture. He offered her his hand, and she, courteously, rested her hand on his. At least someone was acting civil, she thought with a glance towards Katara, who hadn't even shown the Avatar the attention he rightfully deserved. Had the girl no manners. Here stood one of the most powerful men in the world, and she plainly ignored him!

Aang led her to the chair next to the head of the table, sliding the chair in behind her as she sat down, before he took his place on the other side of the table. Him being, as just mentioned, one of the most powerful men in the world, it would seem odd to outsiders – people with no rang, like Katara – that he was not to sit by the head of the table, but since he was in the Fire Lord's house, another very powerful person, and the Fire Lord was not home, it would be disrespectful.

Sokka helped Katara to sit by Azula like the Avatar had just done to herself, before he helped Suki to her seat beside him. At his other side, Toph was being helped to her seat by the Avatar, which met Azula's approval. The man had taste – if he'd been helping _Katara_ to her seat, though, it would have been another case.

"I apologize most urgently on behalf of my fellow Fire Lady," Azula said in a kind, yet peak, voice, gesturing towards Katara. "I'm sure she did not mean to offend you."

Katara glared at her, but the way she stared at Azula clearly implied that she thought she was being falsely accused.

"I am not offended," Aang responded to Azula, and Katara turned in surprise and confusion, probably trying to figure out what she had done.

"_Try_ and hold your mask," Azula breathed.

Katara clenched her teeth.

"I understand," the Avatar continued, this time speaking to the water bender. "Seeing your brother again after all this time … It's permitted to forget the higher-up's politeness in those cases." He smiled widely at her, as if a sun was shining out from within him. "I wasn't raised with it, either. I understand."

Azula saw Katara blush from the corner of her eye, and her eyes shone with excitement.

"You are most kind, Avatar," she said, lowering her head.

"I'm glad you brought on the subject yourself, Aang," Toph suddenly cut them off, and Azula looked curiously at her. Speaking so openly to the Avatar … "Being an Earth Bender – and blind," she laughed, "I've always wondered how the Air Temples are like. Would you care to tell us about them?"

"And now that you're at it, tell about the fighting techniques, too!" Sokka interrupted. "Auw!" The last was a soft outburst, and he looked accusingly at Suki, who rolled her eyes.

_To be expected_, Azula thought.

Aang turned towards Toph with another bright smile. "I'd be happy to tell you anything you want to hear, Toph." Again with the open attitude … "So … Where to begin?"

"Hello~" Sokka called. "Fighting techniques?"

Aang grinned but then looked cautiously at Toph. "Is that okay with you, Toph?"

Azula's hands came up in fists, resting in her lab, neatly hid from the eyes of anyone else. Even herself, for that matter.

"Fighting techniques sounds _sweet_!" Toph responded. "About time someone picked a proper topic of conversation!"

All three of them laughed, Suki rolled her eyes, and Katara stared at the table.

"Before you go any further with this," Azula interrupted, "shall we call for the dinner?"

Aang nodded. "Certainly."

Azula reached for the silver bell in front of her, ringing it elegantly. Silence roamed for a few seconds before the servants came hurrying in with the dinner, served invitingly on small plates.

After the servants had placed every plate on its place and left the room, Sokka sighed. "Such small plates."

It seemed as though the only one still keeping up manners, aside from Azula, was Suki. Azula wondered if she had grown up elsewhere than in savagery.

Azula turned her attention back to the Avatar, who had now begun an interesting description of the Air Temples – as much as was not a secret, Azula guessed. Hearing his stories she wanted to know all of the secrets, and several ways to get to them crossed through her mind.

The subject of fashion amongst the Air Nomads, which the Avatar obviously did not have much to tell about, subtly changed into the subject of the newest types of clothing in the Earth kingdom. If Mai had been there, she would have noted that this was an extremely dull subject, since no one could possibly want to wear anything that wasn't a type of red. Thinking this, Azula realized that she missed her two friends more than she had let herself know.

After dinner they agreed on a walk in one of the gardens, resulting in Suki's and Katara's departure, since Katara apparently wasn't feeling well. Weakling.

Sokka and Toph were discussing the positions of benders and non benders in battles, so that left Azula and Aang outside the conversation.

"The storm seems to be progressing," Aang notified and pointed to a tall tree that was starting to shake aggressively. "We should head inside."

"Is the great Avatar being scared by nature?" Azula teased. "Shall I laugh?"

He smiled. "Not on my behalf. I'm just worrying about the young ladies."

"Young?!" she laughed. "We are the same age, if I am not mistaken."

"Then small," he corrected, measuring the difference of height between them, which was admirable. He was at least a head taller than Zuko, and he was a year younger.

"You made your point," she bit him off scathingly. "But you cannot possibly put me in the same scale as _her_," she continued, pointing towards Toph's back, perfectly aware that the Earth Bender could hear them if she wanted to listen. "For a seventeen year old, that's quite intriguing."

"I can hear you!" Toph called from up front.

"Don't think I didn't know, dear," Azula called back, achieving a backwards glare from the girl. This was kind of pathetic, in Azula's opinion, since she couldn't point her glare or really use her eyes as an endorsement of her feelings.

"Now, now," Aang cautioned, wavering his hand peacefully. "We wouldn't want a fight."

"Speak for yourself!" Sokka declared childishly and sniffed in a theatric manner. "I'm dying to see some action."

Azula stopped and pointed towards the very tree she and Aang had just talked about. "Then I guess your wish is coming true."

The next thing they knew, the tree broke in half, and the part freed from ground was carried several meters across the ground.

"Maybe we should get inside," Sokka noted, his face obviously surprised and … scared?

Azula smiled dryly. "Not so tough now, are we?"

They hurried inside, but the Avatar looked backwards with worried eyes. "Maybe I should go out there and see what I can do," he said.

"We are used to these storms," Azula told him. "You do not need to worry yourself."

He sighed deeply, followed by a nod.

"Maybe we should ask the servants to fetch Katara and Suki to see if they're better, and hear if they would want to join us for tea," he proposed.

"Certainly," Azula agreed.

Sokka nodded. "It's always cozy to sit inside when there's a storm."

"Don't hold your breath, though," Azula noted. "It won't be a blizzard."

---

So … You're probably all wondering: WTF?!?! AANG'S ONE YEAR YOUNGER THAN ZUKO?!!?! WTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, B*ITCH?!?!?!?!!

Well, Aang was gone in the Spirit World, so technically … He could disappear at any point in time, and appear at any point in time. Here, he disappeared when he was twelve, and he reappeared as twelve. But! When he reappeared, Zuko was thirteen, Ozai's angels and Sokka twelve, Katara was eleven, and Toph was nine. It's nice that Aang has this ability in AU xD

Plus … He's tall :P

Review, please ^^


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